Three fundamental principles of the spiritual life

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THREE FUNDAMENTAL

PRINCIPLES OF THE

SPIRITUAL LIFE

BY

MORITZ MESCHLER, S.J.

SECOND EDITION

ST. LOUIS, MO. 1912
Published by B. Herder
17 South Broadway
FREIBURG (BADEN) I LONDON, W. C.

Germany I 68, Great Russell Sereet

FERNDALE

^^

■//

NIHIL OB STAT,
Sti, Ludovici, die 2^ Febr. igii

F. G. HOLWECK,
Censor Librorum.

IMPRIMATUR.
Sti. Ludoviciy die 25 Febr. igii

f Joannes J. Glenn on,
ArchiepiscopuSy

Sti. Ludovici.

Copyright, igiiy

by

Joseph Gummersbach.

-BECKTOLD —

PRINTING AND BOOK MFG. CO.

ST. LOUIS, MO.

FOEEWORD

A certain Persian prince was a great
friend to learning. From all directions he
gathered together learned writings for his
library, and wherever he went his books had
to accompany him. They, however, became
after a time no small burden. He then com-
missioned some learned men to abridge the
wisdom of the accumulated books into a num-
ber of volumes that could be conveniently
carried on a camel. But as he found even
this too laborious an undertaking after a
time, the various books were further epito-
mized into one book, and finally this single
volume into a single rule of life which the
prince could carry everjnvhere without any
trouble. And so all was easier and better.

That is the thought which underlies these
pages. There are countless and voluminous
books on the spiritual life. Who knows the
mere titles of them all or can reckon their
number? There is certainly nothing to de-
plore in this ; one can scarcely write or read
iii

JUL ?1 B8T

iv FOREWORD

enough on this subject — the highest and best
a man can study here below. But who can
read all these books and remember what they
contain! It would, then, certainly be an ad-
vantage if we could acquire the science of
the spiritual life — the science of the saints
— in a simpler and shorter form, without los-
ing its essence. It is indeed the spirit of
our time to arrange everything that concerns
our life as simply, easily, and practically as
possible. Our own instinct is to simplify
everything as we grow older. We become
wonderfully simple as time goes on. Our
whole philosophy of life resolves itself into
one principle which controls the mind, which
influences, directs and guides the whole life.
The nearer we come to God, our last End,
the more we partake of His Divine simplic-
ity. At the end God alone is all to us. The
same is the case with regard to divine Truth.
In one truth all are contained. One single
truth, considered seriously and practically, is
enough to make us saints.

In these pages, then, the whole spiritual
life is set forth, simplified and reduced to
three fundamental principles without which
the most complicated, the most sublime as-
cetical practices are of little avail, for they

FOREWORD V

lack what is most needful and most essential.
Such practices, alone, would not lead us to
the end we seek. But with these funda-
mental principles, really embraced and car-
ried into effect, we are truly practising the
life of divine grace. And if at any time in
the course of our spiritual life we perceive
that we are not as we should be, let us test
ourselves by these three principles, and see
whether our practice is in conformity with
their observance. We shall by this means
assuredly find where we are wrong, and in
order to resume our struggle after perfection
we have only to consider seriously these prin-
ciples and to submit all our life and all our
endeavors to their guidance.

A clever writer has entitled his book on
life in the world : ^'Wisdom in the Waistcoat-
pocket.'' Here is ^'Christian Asceticism in
the Waistcoat-pocket.'' The little volume
gives the quintessence of the spiritual life —
its exercise in miniature — expressed in three
leading principles. ^'All good things are
three, ' ' says the proverb ; so all the spiritual
life rests on three leading principles. They
alone, interlaced, mutually balanced and well
adjusted, form the setting of the precious
pearl of the wise, Christian perfection, — a

vi FOREWORD

jewel of such price that the wise merchant,
who seeks for precious things, willingly and
joyfully takes any amount of pains and gives
all that he has to secure it.

The Authok.

Luxemburg, August 8, 1909.

CONTENTS

FOBEWOBD

THE FIRST FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE

PEAYER
CHAPTEB PAGE

I What It is to Peay . 1

II How Great and Excellent Prayer is . . 4

III The Command to Pray ....... 7

IV The Great Means of Grace 13

V How Prayer Can Do All Things .... 19
VI The Right Way to Pray 24

VII Vocal Prayer 30

VIII Examples of Vocal Prayer 34

IX Mental Prayer 48

X The Devotions of the Church .... 54

XI The Spirit of Prayer . . 59

THE SECOND FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE

self-denial

I The Right View of Mankind 69

II What Self-denial Is 72

III Why We Must Mortify Ourselves . . .77

IV Characteristics of Self-denial .... 83
V Some Considerations 87

VI Exterior Mortification 90

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

VII Intebioe Mortification 94

VIII Mortification of the Intellect .... 97

IX Mortification of the Will 102

X Of the Passions 107

XI Sloth 110

XII Fear 113

XIII Anger and Impatience 123

XIV Pride 127

XV Attraction and Aversion 133

XVI Faults of Character 142

XVII Some Additional Remarks 148

THE THIRD FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE

LOVE OF the divine SAVIOUR

I Charity 154

II Christ — God 157

III God— Man 165

IV God— A Child 171

V The Wisest Teacher and Guide of Souls . 177

VI The Son of Man 183

VII The Supernatural 191

VIII The Book of Life 196

IX He Was Good 201

X His Passion and Death 206

XI The Glory of the Sacred Humanity . . .216

XII The Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar . 223

XIII His Last Injunctions 231

THREE FUNDAMENTAL PEINCIPLES
OE THE SPIEITUAL LIFE

THE FIRST FUNDAMENTAL PRINCI-
PLE: PRAYER

Prayer is the beginning of all that is good
in man. Therefore to become familiar with
prayer, to value it greatly, to love it and use
it rightly and zealously is an inestimable
possession both for time and eternity.

May what follows help ns towards acquir-
ing it.

CHAPTER I

WHAT IT IS TO PRAY

1. To pray is the simplest thing on earth
and in human life. It is essentially simple,
just because it is so necessary.

2. To pray needs no learning, no eloquence,
no money, no earthly recommendation. It
does not even require any special feeling of

1

2 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

devotion. Sensible consolation in prayer is
only an accompaniment and quite a second-
ary matter. Sweetness in its exercise does
not in the least depend upon us. God gives
it, and we receive it thankfully. We can
pray more easily with such help, but we can
also pray without it. No matter whether
our feelings seem in tune with Sunday or
with weekdays, we always can and we always
must pray.

3. In order to pray we need only to know
God and ourselves, to understand Who He
is and who we are, how immeasurable is
God's fatherly goodness and how unfathom-
able our own misery. Faith and the cate-
chism are the only knowledge we need bring
to prayer, and our very necessity pleads
our cause. For prayer itself, only a few
thoughts are requisite, the fewer the bet-
ter— few desires and few words. But the
words must at least be from the heart, or
else there is no prayer. And is there any
man who is really without some thoughts
and some desires? This is, then, the whole
apparatus we require for the noble work of
prayer. God is ever ready to give His
grace, and He gives it to each and all.

4. To pray is simply to speak with God,

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 3

to hold converse with Him by adoration,
praise, thanksgiving, petition and depreca-
tion. Some theologians say that prayer is
a report we present to our good God, or an
audience He grants us. This expresses the
truth in too formal a manner. Many of us
can present no report, and to speak of an
audience is too formal and stiff. Let us
think of prayer as a familiar conversation
with a good and kindly man. We trust him
in the simplest way with all that we have
most at heart — with our sorrow and joy, our
hopes and fears; and in return we receive
from him advice and warning, help and con-
solation. We speak together of the most im-
portant matters, quite plainly, often quite
without emotion or a spark of feeling or ex-
citement; all that matters is that we should
speak honestly and earnestly. So let us con-
verse with God in prayer; the more simply,
the better, so long as our heart is in it.

5. We often spoil our prayer, and make
a hard and disappointing business of it, be-
cause we know not how to use it and because
we take a wrong view of what prayer is. If
we do but tell God what is in our heart, we
pray well. Every road, they say, leads to
Eome, and every thought finds its way to

4 THKEE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

God. If only our praj^er is simply offered,
it is the right kind of prayer. What can we
offer our loving God that is sublime or
clever! If we know nothing, and if we have
nothing to say, let us tell Plim so. That is
at once a prayer, a glorifying of God and an
emphatic petition for ourselves.

CHAPTER n

HOW GKEAT AND EXCELLENT PKAYER IS

Our thoughts are the image of our soul.
The more exalted its thoughts, the greater
and nobler the soul. So long as we give
ourselves solely to what is earthly, visible
and created, our soul will never reach beyond
transitory and passing things; if, on the
other hand, we think of God, our soul comes
to share in the greatness of the Godhead.
Only angels and men can think of God, and
to think rightly of Him is the highest thought
possible to a created being. Thought can-
not rise higher than the Highest. Now it
is in prayer that man raises his thoughts to
God and has communion with Him. Man is
united with nothing so intimately as with
the reflection of his soul — his thoughts.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 5

And in this case that reflection is God Him-
self, the highest, the most beautiful, the most
exalted, in heaven and upon earth. Except
in Holy Communion, we can, here below, in
no way become so intimately imited with
God as by prayer.

To be able to think of God is a special
honor vouchsafed to man. To have inter-
course with men, whom one can see and hear,
needs no great skill. But to have inter-
course with an invisible purely spiritual Be-
ing requires something more, and to exercise
this privilege aright demands a high and
important spiritual training and almost a
divine manner of life. The plain servant of
God, who, as he must, knows how to hold
communion in prayer with the Divine Maj-
esty, may enter God^s court before all the
kings and emperors in the world. The rea-
son why prayer seems so hard and tedious
to the ordinary man is because of weariness ;
but weariness is in the man, not in his
prayer. He is earth-bound and has no
higher training than what earth can give.
Weariness in prayer is, then, not a good spir-
itual sign. On the other hand, facility and
an agile spirit in prayer is a sign of true
domination of the spirit over the sensuality

6 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

and earthlmess of our nature. We must,
then, hold fast and convince ourselves of the
truth that we can do nothing higher or more
sublime than pray.

2. It is a marvelous honor for a man that
he should be able to lift up his soul to God in
prayer, but yet more full of honor is the
gracious bending down of God to man. We
are in the depths here upon earth ; high above
us is God in heaven. The golden bridge
upon which He descends to us is prayer. It
is truly a marvelous and touching revelation
of God's love to man, of His munificence,
goodness and condescension, that He should
say to man: "" Pray for all that thou de-
sirest; come to Me when thou wilt; enter
My presence announced or unannounced,
thou wilt ever be welcome; all that I have I
offer to thee.'' Is not this boundless free-
dom which God allows to prayer a sure
proof that we are allied to God, that we are
created for communion with Him, that we
are His family and His children! How un-
speakable a grace ! How infinitely great He
is, and yet He always has time to listen to
us and allows us to seek His presence. No-
where are we received so sincerely, so lov-
ingly, so heartily, as by Him. He is our

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 7

true and eternal Home, and nowhere are we
so truly at home as when we are with Him.

3. How immeasurable are our privileges !
And how little we prize them ! If God were
to distribute money and food, all would run
after Him, as of old the Jews sought the
Saviour when He had multiplied the loaves.
But He offers the honor of speech and inter-
course with Himself, and men set no value
on it. Many a one is even ashamed of
prayer. Does not this mean that he is
ashamed of the dear God and renounces his
own highest privilege? The man who for-
gets and neglects prayer does not know his
own misery and his own dishonor.

CHAPTER III

THE COMMAND TO PKAY

1. God has permitted us to pray, and so
prayer is our right. He has commanded us
to pray ; and so prayer is our duty.

2. The command to pray belongs also to
the old Law. The tables of that Law are
as old as man, and are written as a natural
law in his heart. The first table binds man
to religion and the worship of God. Man

8 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

comes into the world with this obligation by
virtue of his origin. Man must recognize and
honor God as his Creator. So the world has
never been without religion, and thus it
evinces its relationship to God.

3. There has never been a religion with-
out prayer. It is always and essentially a
religious practice, its end being to pay God
the honor that is His due. But it is more
than this. It is the chief practice, the
soul, as it were, of religion. The whole of
religion, indeed, rests on prayer, proves its
reality and sustains itself by prayer, whether
public or private.

4. To ordain prayer is, therefore, to or-
dain the practice of religion. And on this
account the Saviour, ratifying the ancient
law, taught us to pray both by word and ex-
ample, and Himself appointed a form of
prayer. We have to thank His Church that
we know precisely how this great natural
law of prayer, so stringent in its claim, is
to be fulfilled. Our God is a living God, and
His creative power is continually renewed in
our behalf by His preservation of us and by
all He does for us, and we owe Him our
prayers in recognition of His goodness.
Therefore mankind has always prayed, in

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 9

accordance with a divinely implanted in-
stinct. And as widely as God may extend
His creative power from world to world, so
widely will spread the circles of prayer from
His rational creatures. There is but One
Who has no need to pray — God Himself, the
fullness of all good. But all creatures are
dependent on His goodness, and therefore
must pray to Him.

5. God has ordained prayer on His own
account as well as ours.

Not from any need of His does God require
us thus to acknowledge Him — for He has
need of nothing — but because of His justice
and holiness. He is our Lord, our Father,
the Well-spring of all our good. He cannot
deny Himself and give His honor to another.
But the refusal of the homage of prayer on
the part of the creature is nothing short of
apostasy from God. Therefore on His own
account God must bid us pray.

Looked at from our side, prayer is or-
dained by Him, not so much in order that
we may receive, as that we may give and be
able to give. We are never worthy of His
gifts nor fittingly disposed to receive them,
and we must become duly prepared and dis-
posed. Prayer effects this; prayer is, so to

2

10 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

speak, essentially an act of the virtue of re-
ligion. Consciously or unconsciously we al-
ways set before us, when we pray, the inten-
tion of honoring and acknowledging God.
That lies in the very nature of prayer, and
we cannot alter it. But the recognition
which we thus owe to God is a great homage
that must come from our very hearts. In
prayer we humbly acknowledge our need,
our helplessness and insufficiency, we ac-
knowledge God's power, God's goodness,
God's faithfulness to His promises and our
absolute confidence in Him. When we pray,
we truly celebrate divine worship in our
hearts, we sanctify ourselves, draw down
upon us God's benefits and fit ourselves to
receive His graces. Thus by prayer we do
not, properly speaking, dispose Him to give,
but we dispose and prepare ourselves to re-
ceive. That is the difference between the
prayers we make to men and those we make
to God. In the one case we dispose the man
to whom we prefer our petition, in the other
we dispose ourselves.

It is, too, most fitting and most necessary
for us humbly to confess our poverty and our
need before God and thus to magnify His
gifts. And this we do by prayer.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE H

6. Prayer, being the practice of Divine
worship and religion, is not only a means by
which to obtain favors from God, but an end,
the immediate end of our life. We are cre-
ated by God to praise, to adore and to serve
Him. From this point of view we cannot
pray enough. By prayer we attain our aim
and end, so far as we can attain it here below.
It is this thought that has called the contem-
plative orders into being. Even in heaven,
there will be eternal prayer. Whatever on
earth maintains the glory of God, that is
prayer. Where prayer is wanting, there the
Kingdom of God is wanting in men's hearts.
Of how much prayer our unhappy religious
strife has robbed our country ! In whole dis-
tricts the Holy Sacrifice and the praise of
God, as offered in the cloister, have vanished.
This is yet another reason for our praying,
that we may make up for what God's King-
dom has thus lost.

7. If this is what prayer is, who can won-
der that all earnest men, all earnest Chris-
tians, pray, and pray much! With them
religion, and therefore prayer, comes before
all else. We Christians are above all, as
God's ancient people were, a praying people.
The Old Covenant had no Plato and no Aris-

12 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

totle, but it had true prayer, and with it the
true knowledge and worship of God. Our
Christian religion began with prayer in the
Cenacle at Jerusalem. The pagans were
astonished at the constant prayers of Chris-
tians, whose churches were and are true
houses of prayer, while the pagans did not
even know what prayer truly is.

This is the exalted and serious way in
which we must regard prayer. It concerns
religion, which is man's highest and most
glorious possession in this world. Mankind
in general has ever recognized this. Panthe-
ists cannot do so; they do not pray because
they deify themselves and hold that they are
themselves a part of God: Materialists can-
not; their thoughts do not rise above the
dust of the earth: nor can the followers of
Kant ; they imagine they can dispense them-
selves from prayer, because they do not or
will not comprehend the proofs of God's ex-
istence : nor yet can the disciples of Schleier-
macher ; they abstain from prayer until they
are in a devout frame of mind. What is all
this in comparison with the immense testi-
mony of mankind in all ages, of reason and
of faith, to the obligation of prayer?

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 13

CHAPTER IV

THE GREAT MEANS OF GRACE

Light, air, nourishment — without these we
cannot imagine life. So is prayer to the
spiritual life. Without it spiritual life can-
not exist. Thus prayer is the great uncon-
ditional means of grace; if we would be
saved, we must pray.

1. Here certain incontrovertible truths and
principles find their application. Without
divine grace there is no salvation; without
prayer, in the case of those who have reached
years of discretion, no grace can be looked
for. Prayer is, then, as necessary as grace
itself. God has, indeed, ordained the sacra-
ments as means of grace, but in many con-
nections prayer is even more important than
the sacraments. The sacraments confer cer-
tain definite graces ; prayer can, in some cir-
cumstances, obtain all graces. The sacra-
ments are not everywhere and always of pre-
cept, but prayer is always so. Therefore it
has been truly said: ** He who knows how
to pray aright, knows also how to live
aright." By means of prayer man provides
himself with all that is necessary to a good

14 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

life. If this be so, then the following weighty
assertions are true: No one can hope for
any grace except through prayer; all confi-
dence that is not based on prayer is a vain
confidence; and God owes us nothing unless
we pray, because He has promised every-
thing to prayer. Generally, He gives no
grace that is not prayed for; when He does,
it is the grace of prayer itself.

2. Now these are universal truths. But
there are certain definite things in the Chris-
tian life for which prayer is absolutely neces-
sary. First of all are God's commandments.
We must keep them if we are to be saved ; but
of ourselves we have neither the power nor
the grace to keep them. We may even go
further and say that we never have the grace
to fulfill them without fear of falling. You
may say: ''I can do nothing and suffer
nothing," and it may be that you have not
yet the grace ; but you have the grace to pray.
Therefore God commands nothing that is im-
possible; on the contrary. He gives you the
grace itself that you need, or at least the
power of prayer through which you receive
the grace.

In the second place, there are our tempta-

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 15

tions. In our own natural strength we can-
not overcome them; but the temptations are
not so great that we cannot pray. We are
weak only because we do not pray. The
saints were victorious, because they prayed.
Without prayer they would have been de-
feated like us. This is true especially with
regard to sensual temptations, which more
than all others make us blind to the pregnant
consequences of sin, cause us to forget all
good principles and efface from our hearts
the fear of punishment. Without prayer,
there is nothing for us but spiritual ruin.

Finally, we cannot be saved without the
grace of perseverance. But it is a special
gift of grace, when God calls us to die, that
we should be found in His sanctifying grace,
that so death may be to us the call to a
blessed immortality. That is perseverance,
which, according to Saint Augustine, is so
great, so extraordinary a gift of grace that
we cannot merit it, but only obtain it through
humble prayer. But not even to pray for it
shows how unworthy we are of it.

Thus we complete the circle that shows us
the absolute necessity of prayer. Even for
temporal things we must pray, and how much

16 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

more for those that are eternal ! The choice
indeed lies between prayer and spiritual rnin.
3. This is the law of life. But why has
God included everything under the necessity
for prayer? Could He not impart His grace
to us without our prayer? The question is
a superfluous one; what concerns us is not
what God could do, but what He has done.
He has ordained prayer as a means whereby
we are to obtain His grace, and He has every
right so to do. He is free. Lord of His own
grace, and it is His to appoint the way and
means by which it is to be obtained. He has
appointed prayer as a means, and that is all
that concerns us. But man is also free, and
must co-operate in his salvation. Prayer
demonstrates at once the free co-operation
of man, and God's freedom in the appoint-
ment of the means. In God's great scheme
for the world's salvation we recognize both
His freedom and our own; both on His side
and ours this freedom operates as a conjoint
and mighty motive towards the fulfillment of
His ultimate design — man's salvation and
God's glory. Only by such co-operation can
man be worthy of his eternal salvation.
Surely, then, prayer is the least God can de-
mand from man. To be unwilling to do the

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 17

least justly excludes him from grace and
from heaven.

4. The utterances of Scripture and of the-
ologians with respect to the necessity of
prayer are so strong and earnest that they
tend to convince one that prayer, as a means
of grace, is necessary not only because of
God's express precept, but as a result of the
natural law. It is certain that Christ gave
no positive commands beyond the precepts
of faith, hope and charity, and the reception
of the Sacraments. If He, in addition, so
often and so emphatically commands us to
pray, prayer must be involved in the very
nature of His appointed way of salvation.
For if we suppose that God, whenever possi-
ble, rests His work upon the help of subordi-
nate causes and that man, so far as he can,
must co-operate in his salvation, God could
provide no more natural means of salvation
for man than prayer. In fact, one may well
ask if there is any other means, when one
sees the terrible secularism, devotion to ex-
ternal things, forgetfulness of God, dullness
and religious indifference that rule the world
from end to end. Our age suffers from a
sad and deadly sickness — coldness towards
God and all that is supernatural. How

18 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

senselessly the worldly man rushes hither
and thither until death overtakes him. He
sleeps into eternity like the unhappy wan-
derer on the snow-covered Alps in winter.
Who will shake the poor creature out of his
deadly unconsciousness? The prayer of his
good angel, who leads him to remember and
care for his soul, to reflect and examine his
conscience. He awakes in his heart the
slumbering desire, the home-sickness for an-
other, happier home than this world, a long-
ing after God our Father, Vfhom he is aban-
doning and forgetting. The lost son seeks
and finds the way back to the Father's, house,
led by the hand of the angel of prayer. Thus
prayer ever destroys and overcomes forget-
fulness of God and the tyranny of sin. Be-
sides, in this world there are so many trials,
disappointments, and adversities that one
who has no consolation must despair and ut-
terly fail. He seeks a confidant, in whose
heart he can lay down his cares and sorrows.
Who like God is the confidant of our souls!
And how otherwise can we find Him than by
prayer, which is communion and speech with
Him? Prayer is the expiration of our sor-
rows, our need and our burden and the inspi-
ration of grace, comfort and enlightenment.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 19

'^Blessed be God, Who hath not turned away
my prayer, nor His mercy from me/' ^

CHAPTER V

HOW PKAYER CAN DO ALL THINGS

Prayer brings to pass a whole world of
good and beautiful things.

1. In common with all supernatural works,
prayer is the cause of merit and satisfaction.
But a quite peculiar effect of prayer is the
granting of what is prayed for. Man prays
and asks, and God hears and grants, not be-
cause man merits this, but because he prays.
Thus the response corresponds, not to the
merit of him who prays, but to the strength
of the prayer itself. And nothing shows us
as this does the eminence of prayer, that has
such great power with God.

2. And how far does the power of God's
response extend? As far as man's need — as
far as the divine compassion and the divine
might. Nothing is excluded; God's promise
is, ^'All things whatsoever you shall ask in
prayer, believing, you shall receive,"
*^ Whatsoever you shall ask, that will I do." ^

1 Psalm Ixv, 20.

2 St. Matth. xxl, 22 (vii, 7). St. John xiv, 13.

20 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Man must make no exception where God
makes none. Whatever, then, we desire, that
is reasonable and well-pleasing to God, we
may pray for — especially spiritual gifts.
The more necessary and the more excellent
the gift, the more confidently we may trust
that it will be granted us. Only as to tem-
poral things must we be careful ; there are
temporal gifts which, if God granted them,
would be our punishment.

Holy Scripture composes a splendid pic-
ture of the efficacy of prayer. Israel on the
desert-way, Moses and Josue, the mighty
deeds of the Judges and the Machabees, the
miracles of our Lord and the Apostles, the
whole history of God's chosen people and of
the Catholic Church, are the history of
prayer and its operations. It is a constant
and marvelous alternation between human
need, human prayer, and divine help and
answer to prayer. Before the power of
prayer all natural laws may become for a
time suspended. At the word of one who
prayed, the sun stood still,^ and went back-
wards.2 As heaven encircles earth, so prayer
with its effectual might surrounds all man-
kind in their journey through this world.

1 Josue X, 12, 13. 2 4 Kings xx, 9-11.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 21

3. There is indeed a world, in great meas-
ure, certainly, invisible to our eyes and only
known to heaven, a world in which the effi-
cacy of prayer is nobly and gloriously mani-
fested. It is the world of souls that are be-
ing cleansed, trained, enlightened and sanc-
tified. Nothing, in the end, can withstand
the gentle, gradual, penetrating efficacy of
prayer; no passion, no force of trial or
danger but is overcome. Quietly it makes its
way into a man's thoughts and views, his
will and sentiments; through prayer he be-
comes another man. How hard it is to do
anything with cold iron; put it in the fire,
and you can make what you like of it on the
anvil. Pray and persevere in prayer, and
you control your passions as you will. ''Be-
hold, he prayeth,'' ^ said the Saviour to Ana-
nias of Paul the convert. The Lord by His
power cast down Saul, the enemy "breathing
out threatenings and slaughter." Prayer
made him an Apostle. There is nothing to
fear from a man, or for a man, who prays.

"What philosophy strove to give man of old
— clearness of vision, calm of spirit, modera-
tion of the affections and courage in trials —
that prayer bestowed on the first Christians.

lActs ix, 11.

22 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PEINCIPLES

Prayer was their school of learning and meta-
physics, the lever with which they uplifted the
pagan world on every side. Prayer is the
strong hand of the Church and her whole
statesmanship. If a spoiler draws near, she
flies to God, she prays and conquers, she casts
down the enemy or converts him.

4. In Y/hat, then, does the mystery of the
efficacy of prayer consist? In the union of
man with God. What cannot man do by him-
self in the natural order? Is not his power
astonishing! "What, then, if he works with
God, if he relies on Him and secures on
his side God's providence, power and wis-
dom! What will then be the limits of his
power? What cause for wonder if miracles
come to pass? For through prayer man be-
comes an instrument in God's hand and has a
share in the glorious result of His Divine
work.

To this alliance which is concluded between
God and man by prayer, man brings nothing
but his own weakness, which he acknowledges
before God in prayer and on account of
which he implores the Divine help. But God
comes to meet him with His goodness, power,
and faithfulness. In this great truth, that
we must mark well and ever hold fast, is the

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 23

most glorious consolation — a consolation that
is ours in prayer, not by merit on our part,
but by the Divine goodness and mercy.
These are the effectual causes of our prayers
being heard. Weakness ever prevails with
true greatness. We should assuredly not re-
fuse the prayer of a little creature that
begged its life of us. The little child in the
family can do nothing, but yet possesses all.
It lives by its weakness. It asks and re-
ceives everything. In comparison with the
beasts, man appears to disadvantage in many
ways. The beast comes into the world with
its clothing, with its tools and weapons. How
long man remains utterly helpless ! And so
God stretches out His wise and strong hand,
and provides him with all he needs. Prayer,
in a spiritual sense, is this hand. Through it
he nourishes, clothes, adorns, defends him-
self, with it he can do all that he requires.
It is the Christian's dynamic force. Only we
must observe its laws. By means of prayer,
man has a place and a voice in the council of
God the Three in One, whither all the causes
of the world come for arbitration. There
is nothing for which man's voice cannot
plead. Thus a simple, humble Christian
really makes the history of the world by his

24 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

prayers. So it ever was. Tlie destinies of
Christendom were not only decided on the
battlefield, beside the Milvian Bridge, or in
the tortnre-chambers of the confessors, but
also in the silence of the catacombs where
the Christians prayed, nnder the palm of
a Paul the Hermit and in the cave of an
Anthony. The efficacy of prayer is im-
measurably great, and we do not know, in-
deed, all that we can accomplish by it. We
gain possession of the dear God Himself, Who
wills to be weak only against the assaults of
prayer. It, as it were, does liim violence,^
because He so wills. This violence God loves,
and this weakness does not degrade but ex-
alts Him. Let this truth instill courage into
our hearts and inspire us with confidence in
prayer, so that much — yes, that all things —
may become possible to us.

CHAPTER VI

THE EIGHT WAY TO PRAY

If our prayer has no result, the fault is not
God's, but ours. There may be three reasons
for this: either we are at fault ourselves,

iTertull. De Oratione, Cap. 29.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 25

or we pray in a wrong manner, or we ask for
the wrong things. ^ ' Mali, male, mala. ' ' Our
prayers, then, must always possess the fol-
lowing characteristics.

We must know what we are offering to
God, i. e.j we must not pray thoughtlessly,
without attention, and with dissipated minds.
The important point is, not ivillfully to be dis-
tracted, nor deliberately to suffer dissipation
of spirit. How can God listen to us if we do
not even listen to ourselves, and do not know
what we are saying I It can be no honor or
joy to our Holy Guardian Angel to present
such prayer as this to God. Even for our
own sakes we must avoid inattention, for wil-
ful distraction at prayer is sin, and gains for
us not grace, but punishment. But distrac-
tions that are not willful, but which happen
against our will, do not rob us of merit or of
satisfaction, or of the fulfillment of our pe-
titions, but only of the enjoyment and sensi-
ble sweetness of prayer. The thoughtless
chatter of a child does not displease his father
and mother. God knows our weakness and
has patience with us.

In the second place, we must be earnest
about our prayers, we must throw our hearts
into them, if we are to be heard. We must

3

26 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

pray zealously and with real desire; and such
zeal does not consist in the multitude of the
prayers we say, but in the part our will takes
in them. The incense does not rise towards
heaven unless the flame consumes it and lifts
the sacred fragrance heavenwards. Zeal is
the soul of prayer. God listens to the heart,
not to the lips. It is always a solemn thing
to hold communion with God, and it is ever
something important for which we pray;
therefore zeal and earnest desire are always
needed. But since we do not trust to the
power of our own prayers to gain what we
desire, we betake ourselves to the help of our
fellow-men in common and public prayer.
We invoke the saints and the Name of Jesus,
to which is promised in special measure the
power of impetration.^

In the third place, our prayer must be
humble. We come to God as beggars, not as
creditors ; as sinners, not to strike a bargain
on terms of equality. Nothing becomes us
but the utterest humility, which pleases God
and wins His grace, while it stirs us up to be
earnest in our prayers.

The fourth important characteristic of
prayer is trust and confidence. Everything

1 St. John xvi, 23.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 27

invites us to this confidence. God Himself
wills that we should pray, and wills to listen
to us. We are His creatures and His chil-
dren. He knows far better than we the value
of this claim of ours to be heard. Never
must we forget that in prayer we are, first
and last, dealing with the eternal goodness
and mercy of God. That Divme mercy has
the first and the decisive word. The more
spiritual the gift for which we pray, the more
confident we may be that our prayer will be
granted. With regard to temporal favors,
let us be on our guard against two mistakes :
first, praying unconditionally for such favors,
which under the circumstances may be hurt-
ful to us; and secondly, imagining that it is
altogether wrong to pray for them. Tempo-
ral gifts are gained by prayer offered in the
right way, and God wills to be recognized as
the Author and Source of temporal gifts and
on this account has Himself ordained, in the
Paternoster, a petition for them.

The fifth mark of prayer is courage. This
plays a great role in what the Sacred Scrip-
tures tell us of prayer. We must pray, al-
ways pray and never cease to pray,^ and
never omit prayer either through indolence,

1 St. Luke xviii, 1.

28 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

discouragement, distrust, or disinclination.
And we always pray if we never omit this
duty at the appointed times, just as we say
we * ' always ' ' take our food, if we do not omit
to do so at the regular hours. If the dear
God delays granting our petition, we should
think we are not yet sufficiently prepared to
receive what we ask, or that He is testing our
good will, and we should remember how often
we have kept Him waiting. In the meantime
we are losing nothing ; on the contrary. He re-
wards each renewed prayer with fresh merit.
We dare not forget that God is not our serv-
ant, bound to fulfill our every wish. He is
our Father. He gives what is good, and when
it is good, for us. Our business is to pray.
His, to grant; we had best leave it to Him.
Courage also makes us pray much and as
often as we can. We must pray much be-
cause we have so much and so many to pray
for. He who only prays for himself and
his own little affairs does not fill his place
in the world and knows but little of the power
and efQcacy of prayer. Our prayer is the
prayer of a child of God, and extends to all
the concerns of the Church and of the
human race. And how many and what im-
portant affairs, on which in great measure

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 29

depend the glory of God and the salvation
of souls, wait every moment upon God^s de-
termination ! All the aiiairs of the world be-
long to our prayers, are ours to lay before
God and commend to Him. Thus to pray is
to pray in a truly apostolic, Catholic, and di-
vinely-human way. So our Saviour prayed,
and so He teaches us to pray in the Our
Father. If at any time we do not know what
else to pray for, let us travel in spirit round
the countries of the world, and commend to
God the important affairs which are there in
suspense. They all call for the help of our
prayers. We must, lastly, pray much in
order to learn to pray well. It is by prayer
that we learn best and most quickly how to
pray, just as we learn to walk, read, and
write, by walking, reading and writing. If we
find prayer hard, it is because we pray too
little. This is the secret of praying with de-
light and ease. If we learn to love prayer
we shall always find time to pray. We always
find or make time for what we love.

30 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
CHAPTEE VII

VOCAL PRAYER

The necessity of prayer is absolute, its ef-
ficacy mighty, its ease consoling. Prayer be-
comes easy through the great variety of its
methods.

Vievred as a whole, there are two methods
of prayer, vocal prayer and mental prayer.

1. We pray vocally when we follow a set
form of prayer, whether audibly or inaudibly.

2. Without doubt mental prayer is much
the better method. Nevertheless, vocal
prayer is not to be despised, but on the con-
trary highly valued. In the first place, it is
an address to God, and on that account to be
esteemed high above all other use of speech.
Further, it is a method of prayer which our
nature, which consists of body and soul, al-
together demands. With all the faculties God
has given us, with body and soul, must we
praise Him. In vocal prayer the whole man
really prays and with body and soul rejoices
in God.^ Prayer is called in Holy Writ ^'the
fruit of the lips confessing to His name."^
There are lips enough, alas ! that not only do

1 Psalms xxxiii, 3. 2 Hebrews xiii, 15.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 31

not bring forth the fruit of God's praise, but
even revile Him. It is fitting, then, that our
lips should offer Him reparation, and this
we do by vocal prayer. In the form of prayer
the memory finds support, the affections are
stimulated by the repetition of the words, and
the understanding discovers a noble mine of
thoughts and truths. The words are holy
types and symbols, which, touched by the
magic rod of memory, reveal the prospect of
glorious worlds of truth and awaken springs
of the sweetest confidence. The Holy Ghost
Himself has uttered in the Psalms the most
beautiful vocal prayers, and our Saviour held
it consonant with His dignity to compose a
form of prayer for us. The Church, in her
celebration of the Divine Office, employs only
vocal prayers, and these are invariably short.
The greater part of mankind, too, only know
how to practise vocal prayer, and in it they
find their eternal salvation. Vocal prayer,
then, is the great high-road to heaven, and
the golden ladder by which the angels, pass-
ing up and down, carry messages from earth
and bring down grace upon this world of men.
It is vocal prayer, in fine, that throughout the
whole world gives unity and fellowship to
Christendom in its devotion. Vocal prayer

32 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

is the mighty voice of the confession of the
Faith, wherewith Christendom arouses, en-
courages and strengthens itself, combats un-
belief and rejoices heaven. It is vocal prayer
that arises when Christian people join to-
gether in processions of the Blessed Sacra-
ment, other processions and pilgrimages, and
as they walk through fields and highways and
towns, proclaim their devotion in loud and
joyous song, by the holy Rosary and the can-
ticles of the Church. They are the hosts of
God here in this visible world, and the sound
of their marching and of their voices falls
with terror upon the spirit of unbelief. It
shows the unbelievers, better than all else,
that the world is not yet theirs and that they
have to do with a folk that prays. Yes, vocal
prayer is a great grace ; we can never thank
God enough for it, and we must use it unceas-
ingly. ^

3. Like everything else in this world, vocal
prayer has its difficulties. They consist in
habitual use and in distraction. They arise
from the frequent and daily employment and
the continual repetition of the same forms of
prayer. To meet them we must use the fol-
lowing means : first, never to begin a prayer
(that is, a vocal one), be it ever so short, with-

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 33

out first recollecting ourselves for a moment
and asking ourselves what we are about to
do and begging God that we may do it well.
He who would leap over a ditch does well to
take a run if he is to be successful. Without
this short self-recollection, we both begin and
continue with distractions; and one may say
with truth that the shorter the prayer, the
more need is there of this momentary prepa-
ration. Vocal prayer lasts longer and is
more successful, the oftener we practise,
though but for a moment, this recollection ; it
helps us more than almost anything else to
pray well and earnestly. Secondly, it is
equally important to keep our eyes in check;
either to close them or to keep them fixed
on one point. In order to maintain recol-
lection more easily, it is to be remarked, in
the third place, that we can control our at-
tention, either by fixing it on the words, their
sense and inward connection, or on the Person
to Whom the prayer is said, or on our own
need, or our relation to Him to Whom we
speak. Any of these methods will secure our
sufficient attention ; and to change our method
from time to time will help us much towards
ease and freedom from faults in our use of
vocal prayer.

34 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
CHAPTEE VIII

EXAMPLES OF VOCAL PEAYER

We have no lack of beautiful, sublime and
venerable forms of prayer, — venerable and
sublime, not only because of their content,
but also on account of their authors, who in
many cases are no other than God and the
Church. It is enough to call to mind the
Psalms, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the
Litanies of the Saints and the prayers of the
Divine Office. Let us briefly consider these
several forms of prayer.

1. The Psalms are the oldest prayers in the
world, and were given us by God Himself.
Designed for the most part for the divine
worship of the Old Testament, they belong
also to the Catholic Church by reason of their
Messianic character. They are our prayers,
and only when offered before the Most Holy
Sacrament do they reach their entire signifi-
cation and fulfillment.

The foundation and object of these songs
of prayer are God and man and the mutual
relations between God and man through reve-
lation and the Law, with their blessings,
hopes, and rewards. God is represented

OF SPIRITUAT, LIFE 35

sometimes as Lawgiver, Leader, King,
Teacher, Creator and Father, sometimes as
the Messias, as the Bridegroom of the Church,
as her royal High Priest and Redeemer by
pain and sorrows. Man is presented in
wondering contemplation of God's works and
mighty deeds, rejoicing in God's Law, weep-
ing over his own disloyalty, sincerely repent-
ing and confessing his sins, giving himself to
God in prayer and thanksgiving and longing
for the possession of Him. All depths of
feeling and atfection that can stir the human
heart throughout this earthly life ring in
these songs and prayers. Sorrow and joy,
the most earnest wrestling for the blessing
of the Lord, the cry of need in every affliction,
find in them their true expression. For every
disposition, for every circumstance, there is
just the word we need. Thus the Penitential
Psalms, especially the Miserere, have become
the prayer of penance and the acknowledg-
ment of guilt for the whole world. Whoever
possesses a sense and appreciation of the
beauty of poetry finds in the Psalms the most
beautiful, perfect and sublime examples.
We cannot take the Psalter into our hands
often enough and learn from it the harmony
that will correct the discords of our prayers.

36 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

We shall find ourselves in company; with all
mankind. God Himself puts the words into
our lips.

2. Still more is this the case with the Our
Father. It is the high privilege of this
prayer that in it we use the very words of the
Son of God. We may say that we pray
through Him by Whom we live. He Himself
to Whom we are bound to pray provides us
in His goodness with the supplication. Be^
sides this, it is in itself a most glorious
prayer. It is clear, short and complete. It
embraces perfectly the necessary elements of
prayer, i. e.^ invocation and petition. The in-
vocation ^^Our Father '^ is not only true, it
glorifies God and is necessary for us, because
it at once reminds us of our true relation to
God as Father, places us in a state of the
utmost consolation, of reverence, love and
confidence and recalls to us how we belong
to the whole human race as to one great divine
family. The petitions embrace all that we
can reasonably and fittingly ask and give us
the right order in which to offer them.

All the petitions we may make can be
simply referred, both as to their end and
means, to one great end, which is twofold in
character. In reference to God, the end is

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 37

His honor and glory, in reference to us, our
salvation by the attainment of heaven. Here
we have the two first petitions, which have
to do with that twofold end. The means to
attain this end we find arranged as it were in
two categories, the first embracing the pe-
titions for all needful gifts both for the
spiritual and bodily life (contained in the
third and fourth petitions), and the second
the petitions for the averting of evils which
threaten or render impossible of attainment
our final end. These are set forth in the
three last petitions. We cannot think of or
wish for more: all is included here. Thus
the Our Father is a true type of prayer, full
of great, sublime and noble ideas, thoughts
and desires. It embraces our whole being,
higher and lower, temporal and eternal. It
is, as the Holy Fathers say, an abridgment of
the Gospel and of all religion. It instructs
our understanding, gives the right direction
to our will, and so shapes all our desires, sup-
plications, and prayers, that they conduce
to our salvation. The Our Father is itself
the pledge that our prayers will be heard, be-
cause we pray in Christ's words, and Christ,
our Lord and High Priest, prays with us,
whose impetration never fails, because of His

38 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

infinite and divine merit. No other prayer,
indeed, unites ns so closely with the Saviour's
thoughts, purposes and intentions, with His
spirit and His longing to advance God's
glory and our salvation. The Our Father is
the beautiful and eloquent expression of His
all-embracing love for God, the Church and
all mankind. He has comprised within it
the needs of each individual soul, of all na-
tions, of the whole human race and of all
ages. The Our Father is, truly, the family
prayer, the imperial supplication, of Christ
and the Church.

3. The Hail Mary is the sweet share that
Mary, our dear Lady, the Queen and Mother
of Christendom, has in our vocal prayers.
It is a proof that the Mother never fails the
Church, that all is under her hand and that
Christendom will not work, live, or die, with-
out her.

The Hail Mary has indeed an exalted
origin. An angel brought it in the name of
God from heaven as a salutation of honor
such as never 5^et had been given to a mortal,
the Holy Ghost added to that salutation by
the lips of the highly-favored St. Elizabeth,
and the Church, in order to make the angelic
greeting a complete prayer, has set her seal

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 39

thereto by the supplication she has subjoined.
Since the sixteenth century, the prayer has
been used in its present form. Almost al-
ways it comes after the Our Father to show
the close and loving relation of the Christian
soul to the Mother of God. It has become the
chief and most loved expression of honor to
Mary. It has been rightly called the ' ' unend-
ing salutation,'' because incessantly as the
earth circles round the sun it is renewed on
earth and mounts to heaven.

Like all other prayers the Hail Mary con-
sists of invocation and petition. The invoca-
tion contains five encomiums of God's Mother.
The three first were uttered by the angel.
They deal with the mystery of the Incarna-
tion, of which Gabriel was the ambassador,
and express first of all the fitting prepara-
tion of Mary for the mighty mystery by that
fullness of grace which was vouchsafed her ;
then the accomplishment of the Incarnation
by the special indwelling of God in Mary by
her conception of the Eternal Son ; and finally
the effect of the mystery upon Mary, her
honor and supremacy over all the blessed
ones of her race. Elizabeth next proclaims,
as the foundation and cause of this supremacy
and this splendor of grace, the Divine Child

40 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Whom Mary had conceived and was to bear.
Lastly, the Church repeats and ratifies the
whole glory of the marvelous titles bestowed
on her by the angel and Elizabeth, by the
ever-memorable formula of our faith ^ ' Mother
of God.'' Thus the glorious invocation in-
cludes all that the Faith teaches us concern-
ing Mary and so contains all Catholic doctrine
with respect to her. The prayer, classically
short, and wide in its scope, includes by its
mention of those two moments — the present
instant and that of our departure from this
life — both our whole existence and our need
of help, and vigorously expresses the con-
viction which Christendom cherishes of the
all-embracing power of Mary's intercession
and of the confidence which Christians place
in her as the mediatrix of grace.

But the efficacy of the Hail Mary as a
prayer is not exhausted thus. It develops
through various combinations and amplifica-
tions into two great and important methods
of prayer, namely, the Angelus at its three
appointed hours each day, and the Rosary.
Both devotions are nothing else but the Hail
Mary, arranged on a certain plan with short
additions which give a special application
to the sense of the words in reference to

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 41

the mysteries of the life, suffering, and glori-
fication of Jesus and Mary.

If, then, we understand the deep signifi-
cance of the Hail Mary, and accustom our-
selves to say it devoutly, we shall find it pro-
vides amply for our supplications, for our
spiritual needs and for the glory of God's
Mother. Every day of our life will then be-
come an ever-blooming garden of roses, in
which our dear Lady keeps eternal festival.

* * But the perpetual, wearisome, and morti-
fying repetitions!" one hears people say.
Whether they are wearying and mortifying
depends entirely on ourselves. In itself the
recitation of the holy Eosary is the frequent
contemplation ci a beloved picture and the
repetition of a dear name, of a beautiful song
that comes naturally to the lips and is any-
thing but wearisome. The bird repeats its
unvaried song the livelong day, and it is
never tedious. The child repeats ''Father"
and "Mother," always the same beloved
names that ever stir the parents' hearts with
joy, because they come straight from the
loving heart of their child. It all depends on
our spirit and our love, and on a real de-
votional intention. And it is just this fre-
quent repetition of the same thoughts and

42 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

truths with real attention that rouses our
spirit and fosters our love.

4. The same may be said of the Credo and
Glory be to the Father, in our vocal prayers,
with the sign of the cross. There is a
marvelous power and variety in the Catholic
Church, even in her forms of prayer. As
the dear Grod strews blossoms of a thousand
kinds over this world, bidding them spring
forth in manifold variety, so the Holy Ghost
produces unceasingly forms of varying
beauty in the Kingdom of Prayer. Christian,
Catholic prayers hide such riches and such
a fullness of truth as time can never exhaust.
Without essential change, there will ever be
variety. Thus the Glory be to the Father is
but a development of the simple words with
which we make the sign of the cross, and the
Credo a more extended unfolding of the
Gloria Patri and the sign of the cross. The
Names of the Three Divine Persons, which
are briefly and simply mentioned in the Gloria
Patri and when we make the sacred sign, ap-
pear in the Credo by the mention of Their es-
sential intrinsic relations ; Their mode of pro-
cession One from Another, and Their activity
with regard to creation, so that we have
before us the whole scheme of Christian

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 43

doctrine, and, like a Divina Commedia, a
stately presentment of Divine facts and super-
natural mysteries.

5. Now let us briefly mention the prayers
of the Church, or those forms of prayer which
are publicly used by the Church in her wor-
ship and have received her approbation.
It is certain that, next to those directly
revealed, they must take the first place in
our estimation and aifection. The Church,
which teaches us to believe aright, teaches
us also how to pray aright. The law of her
creed is also the law of her prayer. We
shall nowhere find prayers more full of mean-
ing and of power. They are full of the true
Christian and Catholic spirit and flavor.
Like the Psalms and the Lord^s Prayer they
are distinguished by clearness, simplicity,
brevity and impetrative power. Where the
Church prays, there the Holy Ghost, Who
taught her how to pray, prays also. He who
would learn the Church's motherly love and
care for men, let him read the collects for the
Sunday Masses, and the prayers appointed
for the solemnities of Good Friday and Holy
Saturday. There is no human condition,
concern, or need, which has not the Church's
loving thought and comprehension, her pity-

44 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

ing sympathy and intercession. All men are
her children, she embraces all in her heart
and in her prayer.

She sets before ns a most fitting mode of
praying in the Litanies, especially the Litan-
ies of all the Saints. This method of prayer
takes us back to the earliest times of the
Church, when with supplication and entreaty
she sought the tombs of the martyrs and her
great basilicas. The structure of the Litanies
of the Saints is perfectly adapted to re-
sponsory prayer. It places us at once in the
midst of Christendom. All great and com-
mon affairs of the Church are named.
Clergy and people join their voices and send
up to heaven their united supplication. The
members of the hierarchy point out what we
are to pray for; the people with one voice
take up the petition. The whole devotion
brings to our mind the divine and hierarchi-
cal constitution of the Church. A wonderful
Catholic tone, too, rings in the invocation of
the Saints. There is in it true Catholic
humility and recognition of the Communion
of Saints and the law of intercession, first of
all the intercession of our Lord and Saviour,
the great, universal Intercessor, by the solemn
invocation and the claiming of a share in the

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 45

merits and mysteries of His suffering and
glorified Life — a glorious confession of true
Christian faith. This method of prayer is
full of instruction, simple, natural, utterly
and wholly Catholic. It is a noble example of
public prayer.

We may also mention the antiphons which
the Church authorizes for use each day, at
the varying seasons of her year, in honor of
the Mother of God. They are blossoms of
filial poetry, simple daisies on the field of the
Church's year, but at times (as in the case
of the Salve Eegina) of marvelous depth of
feeling and sublimity.

6. These are some of the jewels of the
Church's treasury of vocal prayer. It is a
great and noble treasury, the assured inheri-
tance of all Christians, all praying souls. We
have besides many other vocal prayers, which
hold a lower place in our prayer-book list.
The abundance has almost made us poor;
with it there is always the danger of super-
ficiality. It is certainly strange to be obliged
to take a prayer-book and recite from it what
we desire to bring to the feet of the dear God,
If, nevertheless, we cannot do it otherwise, let
us do it in this way. It is better to pray from
a book than not to pray, or to pray badly.

46 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

But always let us try to use our old ac-
customed vocal prayers, those we learnt as
children, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the
Creed, the Gloria. These should really form
our prayer-book. All that is contained in
printed books of devotion we find expressed
in the great common forms much more simply,
intelligibly and impressively. Only we must
take the trouble to enter earnestly into these
foundation-prayers, to learn their meaning
thoroughly and to make it our own by a de-
vout familiarity.

A very private and personal method of
prayer is the use of ejaculations, or little
prayers for divine protection. They consist
in brief aspirations and acts of virtue which
are sent up to the dear God all day long ac-
cording to time and opportunity, fresh and
living from the heart without special prepara-
tion. We can always find occasion for these
upliftings of the heart : a sorrow that befalls
us ; a joy that is granted us ; a benefit God be-
stows on us; a temptation that comes upon
us ; the recollection or renewal of good reso-
lutions or of the amendment suggested by our
particular examen of conscience ; the passing
of a church or picture of the saints ; the meet-
ing with those for whom we desire some good

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 47

or from whom we would avert some misfor-
tune ; lastly, the care to use spare moments of
time which would otherwise be lost, of which
there are plenty in our days, if we will only
mark them and take care of them. To see
to it quietly and little by little, that this un-
cultivated and fallow land of spare moments
be ploughed and brought into cultivation is
of the greatest importance to the lover of
prayer. The right use of such moments is
indeed but a retail spiritual business. But
no prudent merchant despises the small daily
customers; it is through them he becomes
rich. He who despises little things is not
worthy of great. Tiny grains of gold are
gold none the less ! This method of prayer,
too, is not liable to distraction, under any cir-
cumstances. Before the distractions can
arise, these winged prayers have long ago
risen up to God and heaven. The intelli-
gent use of these aspirations maintains us
continually in the right disposition to pray.
He who will only pray when he must, runs
the risk of praying badly. These glowing-
sparks of prayer are like the host of little
twinkling stars in the night sky, the adorn-
ment of our daily life, and our consolation in
the darkness when we come to die.

48 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER IX

MENTAL PEAYER

Anotlier method of prayer is interior or
mental prayer. It is called interior because
in its use one does not observe a set form of
prayer nor any arranged sequence of words,
and is known as mental prayer because it con-
sists in a serious consideration of the truths
of faith, with a view to their practical ap-
plication, for without such application it
would be but study in theology. Finally, it is
indeed prayer, because this consideration is
but the preparation that is to lead to prayer
properly so called and to more ardent and
fervent communion with God. Prayer is al-
ways converse with God; without Him as its
end meditation would be but reflection and
conversation with oneself.

2. It is of the first importance to guard
against the idea that mental prayer is too
high and hard for us and therefore unattain-
able by us. "We have often meditated without
knowing it. When we have reflected as to
whether we should undertake some business
and how we should accomplish it, this mental
act was serious consideration, and if it had

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 49

been applied to the spiritual life, and ac-
companied with prayers, it would have been a
real meditation.

3. Various directions for meditation are
given. Some theologians give only one order
of considerations, acts of virtue, and reflec-
tions, e. g., adoration, humbling of oneself be-
fore the Divine Majesty, faith, hope, charity,
etc., by which we hold communion with God.
St. Ignatius teaches the practice of medita-
tion by way of man's three spiritual powers.
Memory, understanding and will are brought
into play in order to place before us the con-
sideration of some doctrine of the Faith or
some mystery of the life of Jesus. Our
memory supplies briefly the content of the
special truth, or the course of the historical
event, together with a slight picture of the
scene by exercise of the imagination. The
speculative intelligence seeks to master the
content of the mystery, to comprehend its
truth, sublimity, beauty and consolation, and
the practical intelligence points out its appli-
cation to our life. The affections at once
arouse suitable acts of pleasure or aversion
relative to what the understanding has dis-
covered, and the will secures the lesson that
has been gained, chiefly by earnest resolu-

50 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

tions and prayer for grace to carry them into
practice. One makes first of all a short
prayer of preparation for grace to meditate
well, and one is ready to begin. The essence
of this method of mental prayer consists, then,
in a united action and application of the sonl's
faculties to a religious truth or a historical
event. This event may be considered in vari-
ous portions, which may again be subdivided
according to ^ ^persons, words, and deeds,'' on
all of which the spiritual faculties may be
brought to bear. This method is simple, easy,
almost suggested by our very nature, and
solid. The whole man is exercised in it and
strives with every faculty by God's help to
become possessed of some divine truth and to
apply it to his life practically and definitely.
For beginners, these rules are unquestionably
good. Little by little the practice of Mental
Prayer grows into a habit, and its exercise and
application continually become more easy.

St. Ignatius teaches besides three other
methods of mental prayer.

The first consists in considering the his-
torical mysteries as they present themselves
in their various details to the interior and ex-
terior senses, to our sight, our hearing, our
affections and to our interior delight in the

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 51

virtues which are set before us in these mys-
teries. This is a very simple and easy
method, which purifies and sanctifies our
imagination, stimulates our will, and con-
ducts our understanding into the innermost
sanctuary of the Saviour's sentiments and
virtues, and great saints have been ac-
customed to use it.

The second method is to consider the com-
mandments, the duties of our state in life,
our interior and exterior senses, and to see
what our behavior is with regard to them all,
arousing contrition and resolving to mend
wherever we may be in fault. This is really
a complete examination of conscience; but it
can be turned into a meditation, if one re-
flects at each point what the commandment
enjoins and forbids, and, with regard to our
senses, for what purpose they are given to
us, and how our Saviour and the saints have
used them. This method of prayer greatly
promotes purity of heart and is an excellent
preparation for confession.

The third method takes a form of prayer
for its basis. One goes through every word,
and dwells so long in meditation upon each as
it supplies us with thoughts and aspirations.
This kind of mental prayer is of great serv-

52 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

ice in prolonged sacred functions, in weari-
ness and weakness, and leads us to the knowl-
edge of the construction, beauty and sub-
limity of our prayers. And this is a great
help towards the right accomplishment of
vocal prayer.

4. One can recommend nothing more
earnestly, to those who have time and capacity
for meditation, than the acquisition of this
science of mental prayer. How often God
exhorts us in Holy Scripture to meditate on
His commandments and to consider His bene-
fits! Our Saviour was continually, day and
night, engaged in meditation, and He has
commended the contemplative life as the
'^best part" by the example of His disciple,
Mary of Bethany. By meditation, prayer
becomes of necessity lengthened. The con-
siderations which we engage in stir up our
zeal and desire, and thus prayer gains a
fervor which it would never otherwise pos-
sess. Thus, too, the effects of prayer, merit,
satisfaction and impetrative power, are en-
hanced and increased. The great spiritual
masters are agreed that mental prayer is a
moral necessity for the attainment of perfec-
tion. It must then be especially fostered in
religious houses, the houses, that is, of those

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 53

orders which lead a common and apostolic
life, while they have intercourse with the
world. Observance of the rule and the con-
scientious practice of mental prayer can
even compensate for less strict enclosure and
less external austerity. How, indeed, is it
possible for one to become an apostle, a man
of faith, unless he often and daily represents
to himself the truths of our religion, earnestly
considers and ponders over them, applies
them to himself and makes them the princi-
ples of his conduct ; unless by diligent prayer
they sink down into his heart and so become
as it were, the spiritual capital of his life?
Without this capital one lives merely from
hand to mouth, and never raises one's life
to something higher and more rich in bless-
ings. In vocal prayer, it is true, the memory,
understanding and will, are exercised, but
they are brought into play far more practic-
ally, intensely, and permanently in mental
prayer. By means of it, year in year out,
one who is truly virtuous, a true servant and
man of God, must grow in his spiritual life.
Therefore a great spiritual guide says that
reading, vocal prayer, and listening to
sermons are good and important at the be-
ginning of that life. But meditation must be

54 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

our book, our prayer and our sermon, other-
wise we shall be ever learning but never at-
tain to wisdom. Want of earnest and intelli-
gent attention to mental prayer is the reason
why there are so few truly contemplative
men among religious, priests and theologians.^
We should then firmly resolve to make,
daily if possible, our meditation. For this
purpose every spiritual reading, combined
with reflection and prayer, can become a medi-
tation. We must always prefer mental to
vocal prayer. Even when at vocal prayer, if
it has not to be concluded within a certain
time, we may put aside the form, and follow
a higher and more interior uplifting of our
heart to God. The exercises of St. Ignatius
form a true school of mental prayer. Their
m.ain business is meditation. There one
learns to meditate, or learns again if on-Q has
lost this knowledge.

CHAPTER X

THE DEVOTIONS OF THE CHI^.ECH

The use of the devotions of the churcli is of
vast importance in the life of prayer.

1. These devotions are, in general, the

1 Gerson, Lib. de myst. theolog. pract., consid. 11.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 55

practice of the adoration due to God and be-
long essentially to the exercise of prayer and
divine service. From this point of view there
is nothing novel about them. What is new,
is that at various times some new blossom
from the ancient tree of faith shines out, as if
struck by a sudden ray of light, and draws
to itself the attention of the faithful, becomes
an object of special spiritual attraction, of
admiration and affection, and with the
Church's consent becomes, through practical
veneration, part of the public cultus of
Christian people. The fact is old, the light
is new. It comes forth from the Holy Ghost,
whose divine function it is to lead the Church
into all truth, to open up to her through these
leadings, according to the needs of the age,
new sources of help and consolation and to
connect the activities of her life with ends
which Divine Providence sets before her as
the centuries roll on.

2. Prayer is the first and most natural
work of the devotions of the Church, because
such devotions belong to religion, of which
prayer is the chief business. An invitation
to prayer is, for the faithful, involved in
them, and in proportion as they respond to
it such a devotion will become a part of their

56 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

practical life and a means, in turn, of help
in the exercise of prayer. One has only to
consider for an instant the rich endowment
of pious exercises, feasts and ceremonies
which the Church's devotions have bestowed
on us. If all devotions except Mass and
Holy Communion, all the numerous observ-
ances in honor of Mary and the Saints, with
their manifold ritual of festivals, prayers-,
and pious practices were abolished from
the Church's life, how grievously the life of
prayer would be diminished and injured, how
desolate and poor would be the Church's
year, of what a wealth of ornament and
beauty our churches would be robbed ! It is
the devotions that continually stud the mead-
ows of the Church with fresh blossoms of
prayer and pious observance.

3. And with prayer come all the graces of
prayer. By means of these devotions,
through the prayers that are offered, the
graces also that are contained in the mys-
teries of the Faith are drawn forth in more
abundance and flow in mighty streams upon
the Church. The blessing of prayer attend-
ant upon a popular devotion is able to renew
a whole period, to revive its energy and make
it fruitful. Through the Saints, through the

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 57

religious orders, and through the great de-
votions, one may truly say that God renews
the face of the earth.

4. These devotions effect an attraction to-
wards prayer, and an uplifting of the life
of prayer, that involuntarily recalls the
words of Osee: ^^I will draw them with the
cords of Adam. ' ' ^ By means of them the
dear God comes forth from the door of
heaven and enters the door of our poor souls.
In them He adapts Himself to the character,
the spiritual capacity and the idiosyncrasy
of each individual and of the whole age.
These peculiarities are as numerous as men
themselves and as the various periods of the
world. This is why the Holy Ghost inspires
so many various and new devotions. Thus
He aids and guides the Church in the work,
so dear to her heart, of exploring the treas-
ures of truth and wisdom that her Divine
Bridegroom left to her as her dowry, of de-
veloping their disclosure in accordance with
the capacity and need of her children and
thus enhancing the charm of their beauty,
their variety and their attractive power.
Thus, side by side with the old established
ways of God's prescribed worship, arise new

1 Osee xi, 4.
5

58 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

forms, wliich adapt themselves to the seri-
ousness and strength of the older forms and
become stilted to the peculiarity and taste
of each individual. The devotions of the
Church are like the great and noble feast of
Assuerus.^ Each finds what suits and at-
tracts him. In this way the grace of prayer
is vouchsafed to each soul in the manner that
most pleases and attracts it. God and the
Church follow us, as it were, in these devo-
tions and adapt them to our taste. We are
induced to declare our preference in spirit-
ual things that we may be won to prayer,
the great means of obtaining grace. Who
can withstand God, when He, as it were,
vouchsafes to accommodate Himself to our
measure? One might say that the dear God
wins countless recruits for prayer by these
devotions. May His purpose be abundantly
fulfilled in us ! He gains- nothing for Him-
self. He wills to win us to prayer, and by
prayer to every good, to perfection, to
heaven !

1 Esther i, 3 seq.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 59

CHAPTER XI

THE SPIEIT OF PRAYER

By 'Hhe spirit'' of anything we under-
stand its essence, its kernel, the noblest and
strongest element in it, the soul and charac-
ter, so to speak, without which it cannot be
of any value. The spirit of prayer, then, is
its activity, that which draws us to prayer
and makes us constant in its exercise, ren-
ders our prayer effectual and helps towards
its glorious end.

2. Now the spirit of prayer is composed
of three elements.

The first is great esteem for prayer, a
vivid realization of the sublimity and excel-
lence of prayer in itself. We must be con-
vinced that, by its very nature, prayer is the
best and noblest activity of which we are
capable. Prayer is converse and intercourse
with God: that is the greatest thing we can
say of it. We have, without doubt, in obedi-
ence to God's will, another all-important ob-
ligation, which is itself in some sense a kind
of prayer and a service of God, that is, the
fulfillment of the duties of our state. But
there is a distinction. Whatever else we do

60 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

according to His will does not relate directly
to Him, but to something external to Him,
wliich yet has reference to Him and in some
manner leads back again to Him. But
prayer relates to Him immediately and is
His personal service. It is the performance
of the homage due to Him, and, the theo-
logical virtues excepted, the highest and most
sublime virtue is the rendering of that hom-'
age. Even in the world, offices at court
which involve personal service to the prince
are held in the highest honor. And unques-
tionably, if we are to value prayer as we
should, we must have a right idea of God.
It is because He is not known as He should
be that prayer is not esteemed, and is, alas !
so often the very last thing thought of. One
hears it said, that to pray is to do nothing,
that prayer is good enough for children and
women, for the unhappy and the aged. It
has not come to that indeed with us; but
frivolity and lack of supernatural earnest-
ness and living faith are always in danger
of making us undervalue prayer and sub-
ordinate it to other occupations that appeal
merely to our liking, to our vanity, or to
some other temporal advantage. We must
regard and esteem prayer as God Himself

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 61

does, and, setting such value on it, must, so
far as the duties of our state permit, prefer
it to every other employment and sacrifice
all to it. It is the personal service we pay
to God, and on this account is a privileged
employment. In this sense a theologian of
high repute says that he would rather lose
all his knowledge than deliberately omit one
Hail Mary from his obligatory prayers.

The second necessary part of the spirit of
prayer is the sensible conviction of the abso-
lute need of prayer for the spiritual life,
spiritual progress and our very soul's salva-
tion. We do not value prayer as we ought,
because we know God so little, and we do
not pray because we are not penetrated with
the sense of our want, our misery and our
absolute need of prayer. What we must re-
alize is that Prayer is for us an indispensable
and unique means of grace and perfection,
and this not only because of the Lord's posi-
tive command, but by the very nature of the
case. Since the Lord and the Apostles, the
Church and the holy Fathers so often and
so earnestly admonish us to pray, it must be
that prayer is by its very nature a divine
law and belongs to the essential disposition
of the supernatural order. The necessity of

62 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

grace and the command of God point inex-
orably to prayer. We must pray, then, if
we would advance and not utterly fail. It is
useless to say: ^'What will be will be,
whether we pray or not." It is undeniable
that much happens because one prays, and
that much does not happen if one does not
pray. ^^But I can't pray.'' Then you must
learn. What one must do, one also can da.
How much that is far harder than praying
we have learnt in our life ! ^ ^I have no faith,
therefore I cannot pray. ' ' But you have the
grace of prayer; pray for faith, and it will
be given you. We learn to believe by prayer.
The day we give up prayer we relapse into
danger, sin and destruction. Life is a jour-
ney full of dangers and opportunities of evil,
and men are usually, alas ! on a par with
their environment and no better. What a
great grace, what a special protection it is
to be constantly in a good environment, so
that we are shielded from temptation and do
not yield to the evil that is round about us.
Those without this special protection fall
from one danger into another, and so come
to spiritual ruin. How are we to secure and
retain this protection? By prayer. By

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 63

prayer we lay hold of the hand of God, and
no one holding fast to that, as a child to
its mother's, can come to the least harm or
disaster. He who does not grasp this Divine
hand must beware how he journeys. Prayer
is, then, our indispensable aid, an aid within
the reach of all. Without prayer nothing is
possible to us, with prayer, all things.

The third element that constitutes the
spirit, the strength of prayer is absolute
confidence in prayer. With this we can do
all things, obtain all things, because God has
promised us all things. ^'Ask, and you shall
receive.'' This confidence consists in a firm
conviction that there is nothiag we cannot
accomplish and obtain by good and persever-
ing prayer. Of course it must be prayer in
conformity with the claims of reason and
conscience. He who merely prays and at
the same time seeks occasions of evil, not
intending to guard himself from sin, makes
a mock of prayer and only seeks a miracle.
Rightly understood, it is true that all things
are possible to prayer, even the hardest and
most exalted of all, namely, the transforma-
tion of the heart and the attainment of per-
fection.

64 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

There is a golden saying about prayer in
the catechism.^ We read there that prayer
makes us heavenly-minded and devout. In-
tercourse with the wise makes us wise, inter-
course with God makes us like Him in our
thoughts, principles, sentiments, speech and
intentions. Little by little we grow into that
likeness: it comes slowly, gradually, unob-
served, but so much the more surely and en-
duringiy. However worldly-minded we may
be, little by little our thoughts change, our
heart changes. What before was hard, bit-
ter and contrary to our desires, becomes
easy, sweet and desirable; the world that
fascinated us loses all attraction, only God
and eternity seem great and worthy of our
longing. That is the decisive victory over
the earthliness of our nature. That is the
effect of persevering prayer and the grace
that accompanies it. It is a school of sweet-
ness, like that we knew as children at our
mother's breast. There we were always
learning much that was high and great, we
learnt to think and speak, we became men
and Christians, and all this without weari-
ness and effort. Our mother was indeed
full of loving-kindness, she brought herself

1 1, e. in the German Parochial Catechism in general use.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 65

down to us, became a child with us, lovingly
explained all to us, raised us up to herself,
so that we fell into her ways, learned to
think and speak like her. So it is with
prayer. By it God, Who created us, trains
and educates us and forms us a second time
to His sacred and divine likeness.

Prayer gives the same confidence also in
our efforts on behalf of our fellow-creatures.
Their salvation and perfection is the work
of grace, not of nature. God is the Lord of
grace, and the more intimately we are united
with Him, the more we shall become channels
and instruments of His grace. All that is
external and natural is merely a sword; and
what can the best weapon do without a hu-
man arm! What unites us to God is far
more important and far stronger than what
puts us in touch with men; and He can do
great things with a weak instrument. But
that which unites us to Him is the super-
natural, is prayer. And He ordains prayer
for the help of our neighbor as well as our-
selves. We are to convert the world, not
by work only, but by prayer as well. The
one law of prayer applies to others as to
ourselves. So has God ordained that in all
He may be recognized and honored and that

66 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

we may not be puffed up by pride and ascribe
what He does to ourselves. Prayer is in-
deed a far mightier instrument than preach-
ing and all other means of helping others.
We can pray always and everywhere, and the
effect of prayer is far wider in its extent,
far more universal in its scope. We can do
but a little by word and writing. But prayer
rises up to God and, fertilized by His bless-
ing, descends as a rain of grace upon nations,
countries, continents and centuries. The
history of prayer is the history of the propa-
gation of the Faith and the continual re-
newal of the Church. He who prays the best
is at once the best missionary and the
best citizen and patriot. We children of the
twentieth century must especially take note
of this. All around us are signs of work,
very great, untiring, even exaggerated, but,
alas ! only external work. Only external and
natural effort and achievement are esteemed
and held at high value, only what makes a
noise and a show in the world. Our age is
a very beast of burden, whose one endeavor
is to devour itself. And what is the end of
it all? All vanishes, and we with it. It is
godliness only that has the promises both of

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 67

time and eternity.^ ^'Pray and labor,"
that is the one right, and Christian and last-
ing scheme of human life.

3. The spirit of prayer, then, includes high
esteem for prayer, practical conviction of its
necessity and confidence in its all-conquer-
ing power. This spirit of prayer is one of
the most precious graces in the spiritual life,
indeed, the chief of all graces, the beginning
and the fulfillment of all good, the means of
all means. So long as it lives within us we
are grounded and rooted in God and in all
that is good, and all within us can be restored
and turned to good. Without it, our whole
spiritual life is unreliable; there is no de-
pendence to be placed upon us. Utterly mis-
erable is our condition if we have wholly lost
it; for then our life is no longer founded
upon God, and must wither and perish. A
great master of the spiritual life, St. Al-
phonsus de Liguori, wrote many useful books
and, among others, a very little tract, of
which he says in the fore-word that he con-
siders it the most important and useful of
all and that if all his other works were to
perish, and this alone remained, he would be

1 1 Tim. iv, 8.

68 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

abundantly content and rewarded. It is his
little book on prayer.

And so we have briefly put together here
what belongs to the first fundamental prin-
ciple of the spiritual life: the living convic-
tion of the sublimity, necessity, efficacy and
facility of prayer.

THE SECOND FUNDAMENTAL PRIN-
CIPLE: SELF-DENIAL

Prayer is necessary and is the beginning
of all good. But only the beginning. It is
necessary to join self-denial to prayer. This
is the second of our three principles, which
makes our spiritual life secure and joyful.

CHAPTER I

THE RIGHT VIEW OF MANKIND

Prayer orders and directs our thoughts to-
wards God. Prayer is easy to him who
knows God. Self-denial turns our attention
to our own selves and teaches us how to deal
with ourselves. But to do this rightly we
must know ourselves and regard ourselves
and our nature from the right standpoint.

There are three various ways in which we
may regard mankind.

1. According to the first point of view, man
is altogether good and perfect so far as his
origin and nature are concerned. Deteriora-

69

70 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

tion is an after-conseqnence not of our own
causing, but the result of intercourse with
the corrupt world and its pernicious influ-
ence upon us. Man has therefore nothing
to do but to preserve himself from such evil
external influence. As for the rest, he may
go his own way and let his character de-
velop, just as his nature impels him.

This is the view of the so-called natural-
istic school in its various manifestations.
Such teachers deny the whole supernatural
order and will have none of original sin and
its sorrowful consequences to our race. This
is frantic optimism. It refuses to see the
palpable and tangible disorder and devasta-
tion now existing and sufficiently evident in
mankind, and thus destroys the whole Chris-
tian Faith.

2. The second view asserts the exact con-
trary. Man was once created good, but orig-
inal sin has so ruined his nature that there
is now nothing good, but his being is totally
evil. God Himself cannot make him interi-
orly good again, but must overlook his in-
terior wickedness and clothe him externally
with the justice of His Son, which man ap-
propriates to himself by faith and confidence.
In himself, even in heaven, he still remains

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 71

eviL So thought the reformers of the six-
teenth century. The theory is a bottomless
pessimism, one might even say a kind of
Manicheeism that makes God Himself de-
spair of being able to master the evil He
has permitted. Such a method of justifica-
tion is a contradiction according to which
nothing is left to man but to despair of him-
self.

3. The third view teaches that God in the
beginning created man good and upright, but
that man, deceived by the serpent, fell, and
by original sin and the loss of sanctifying
grace not only failed of his supernatural end,
but also became corrupt in his nature, if not
essentially, yet perceptibly, through inordi-
nate concupiscence. By Holy Baptism the
state of grace is restored, man becomes in-
teriorly good, just, and sanctified, there but
remains in him the power of concupiscence
and inordinate passions, which do not rob
him of his free will, but necessitate a hard
struggle and offer continual occasions of sin.
He can be victorious in this conflict through
the grace of Christ and his own co-operation,
by using the means of grace provided in the
Church, by prayer and self-denial.

That is the Christian and Catholic view of

72 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

mankind, and it alone is true and right. It
does justice both to God and man, at once
humbles and uplifts us, warns and encour-
ages us and gives us hope. According to it
all falls into its right place. God is acknowl-
edged as the Author and Finisher of our
justification, while man has the honor and
merit of co-operating with God in his salva-
tion. There is no exaggeration in either di-
rection. It is the most temperate pessimism
and the most reasonable and noble optimism.
Therefore it is of the highest importance
that all our personal activities should bear
the impress of self-denial.

CHAPTER II

WHAT SELF-DENIAL IS

Self-denial is also called mortification.
This is why it is such a bugbear to men.
Now nothing is worse than a blind terror,
and nothing more completely removes it than
the discovery that the object and cause of
fear exist only in our imagination. Such
is the case with self-denial or mortification.
To see what it really is suffices to reconcile
us to it.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 73

1. What, then, is self-denial? It is noth-
ing more than the moral force and strength
we must apply in order to live according to
reason, conscience and faith, the power we
need in order to fulfill our duty and to be in
fact what we ought and desire to be, reason-
able and noble-minded men. That such force
should be necessary is a consequence of
Adam's fall and is a reminder that we still
bear the trace of original sin. Once all was
easy and delightful; that is so no more.
This force which we must exert gives various
names to the same thing: self-discipline,
self-mastery, self-denial, mortification, self-
hatred. These all mean the same thing, and
all fitly express, according to the teaching of
Holy Scripture, the toil and effort that self-
denial costs us. They awaken the thought
of conflict, of withdrawal and refusal — a
thought our nature inevitably shrinks from.
The difficulty arises not from the thing itself,
which we cannot but desire and value, but
from ourselves, from our nature, now weak
and troublesome, and which must be made
better.

2. "What is really the object of our resist-
ance? What must we attack and subdue?

In the first place not our nature. We did
6

74 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

not create it; it belongs to God, not to ns.
We can use it, but dare not abuse it. The
faculties of that nature are not, then, the
object of mortification. We need' those facul-
ties, and cannot live and act without them.
The stronger and more perfect they are, the
better. Therefore it is not our passions,
even, in themselves, that we have to fight;
they are part of the household furniture of
our nature and are in themselves good or at
least indifferent and only become evil through
misuse.

Not these, but the inordinate indulgence of
them, is the proper object of our mortifica-
tion. But what is inordinate indulgence?
All that is contrary to our end and makes us
fail of that end; all that exposes us to the
danger of losing it, all that does not further
it, in particular, whatever is sinful, what-
ever is an occasion of danger needlessly en-
countered and encouraged, whatever is use-
less, or for which we have no sufficient mo-
tive, and whatever is inconsistent with our
reason, our conscience and our faith. These
and these only are the object of mortification,
and must be fought against and done to death
if we desire to lead a reasonable and a pure
life.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 75

3. The proper end of mortification is now
clear. That end is not to hinder and stifle,
to spoil and destroy nature, but to help it
against the enemy, to guard, guide, direct,
educate, improve it, to make it strong, ready,
disposed to and persevering in all that is
good, to restore it so far as possible to the
purity, justice and holiness of its first condi-
tion, to make it prompt and capable in the
full use of its faculties for God's service and
for the help and salvation of men.

The constraint and violence to oneself and
the sense of uneasiness that accompany mor-
tification are, then, not ends and can accom-
plish nothing in themselves. Man is born,
both in soul and body, for happiness, not for
sorrow. This was his original condition, and
it is only in consequence of sin that it is
otherwise to-day. Sorrow is only an accom-
paniment, not a goal, but a state of transi-
tion to glorious conquest and peace. Even
the pain grows less little by little, and that in
proportion as we set about the work of self-
denial with decision and courage and perse-
vere in its exercise.

4. Still more light is thrown upon the na-
ture and importance of self-denial when we'
consider the place it holds in the building up

76 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

of a virtuous character, and of what virtue
it is a part. Strictly, it belongs to no indi-
vidual and particular virtue. It is necessary
wherever force and power must be exerted.
It is allied more especially with temperance
and fortitude when inordinate passion must
be extinguished and restrained, or when some
difficult undertaking demands decision, cour-
age, and perseverance.

This, then, and nothing else, is self-denial
or mortification; it is the simplest and most
natural course under given circumstances.
It demands no more than what we must be
and indeed desire to be — ^no more than the
trouble we must take to become reasonable,
chaste, noble men and good Christians. As
St. Ignatius says briefly and truly in the
Exercises, the function of mortification is so
to train us that no passion is allowed to guide
our actions. To represent it as more than
this is imagination and takes away the good
name of mortification. A great part of the
dread of self-denial arises from an untrue
and perverse representation of it. It is con-
ceived as the lion in the way,^ the bugbear
and instrument of torture that robs our no-
ble, God-created nature of its rights and

1 Proverbs xxvi, 13.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 77

would torment it to death. Nothing of all
this is true. So important is it to have cor-
rect conceptions; they quickly resolve our
difficulties.

CHAPTER III

WHY WE MUST MORTIFY OUESELVES

The motives inducing us to practise morti-
fication are as many as the days of the year,
and more.

1. First of all we must firmly hold fast the
truth that we are in a fallen condition, i. e.,
a state of disorder and deterioration. We
are only too sensible of it. Our whole nature
is like a knotted trunk, distorted throughout
by frivolous, dangerous and often unchaste
inclinations and impulses, which make good
difficult to us, urge us to what is evil and
dispose us to sin. We are full of selfishness,
pride, envy, cowardice, impatience, sensual-
ity, indolence and instability. The most cul-
tured man can become grievously mean and
ignoble, if he refuses to do violence to him-
self. If we give our evil passions free play,
we may be led into some incredible wicked-

78 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

ness. One keeps dangerous beasts behind
bolts and bars, and even when tamed one
does not absolutely trust tliem. And such a
beast truly dwells within us. There is noth-
ing so mean and low that a man is not capa-
ble of it, if he be impelled by unbridled pas-
sions. The only help against this is the
grace of God and the power of self-denial.

2. We are men and live amongst men in
this world, which, while it certainly is no
hell, is also no heaven. Life is a journey,
but not a pleasure trip; it involves earnest
struggle and work, and work makes one
tired. It is military service that cannot be
evaded, a warfare between life and death, an
interlacing of sorrow and joy, happiness and
misfortune, the one raising us to presump-
tion, the other depressing us to despondency
and despair. Life is companionship with
many others, to whom we are bound by a net-
work of various relationships, social obliga-
tions, positions and vocations, and every such
vocation and position demands some kind of
sacrifice. Who can rightly discharge his ob-
ligations without self-discipline and self-
denial, without boundless patience? We
have to exercise patience on all sides — with
ourselves, with our neighbors, with God Him-

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 79

self. But patience is impossible without
self-denial.

3. We are Christians, and everything in
the Christian religion obliges us to mortifica-
tion. Our Saviour, the Founder of our re-
ligion, preached mortification both by word
and example. He is its living model in all
the mysteries of His life from His cradle to
His cross. He makes it the indispensable
condition of following Him and being His
disciple,^ the very token and symbol of His
religion. The Christian Faith is a cross to
our pride of intellect and the armory of all
motives for self-denial. The commandments
are so many objects of, and demands upon,
mortification, and even the sacraments sig-
nify to us its importance and effect it within
us by the graces they convey. The whole
Christian life is, according to St. Paul's com-
prehension of it, a death and burial with
Christ.^ Without this essential mortifica-
tion, which enables us to avoid all serious
sins, to keep all God's commandments and
to resist all temptations, our whole Chris-
tianity is vain and worth nothing. Only by
the strait way and narrow gate of self-denial
can we enter into heaven.^ Deliberate rejec-

1 St. Matth. xvi, 24. 3 St. Matth. vii, 14.

2 Rom. vi, 4 ; Col. iii, 3.

80 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

tion of it is the declaration of war against
God on the part of the natural man, and a
denial of Christianity and the Christian view
of the world.

4. We mnst possess more virtues ; through
them only can we reach our end. The steps
to that end are good deeds, and in order to
do these we must have the requisite powers.
These powers are the virtues, which are noth-
ing else than constant powers and capabili-
ties to act rightly. We have need, more or
less, of all the virtues, and the exercise of
them all is more or less difficult. Here comes
in the aid of self-denial and self-discipline.
As we have seen, it is not a single virtue, but
helps us to all. Every virtue in itself is
beautiful, desirable and attractive. What
holds us back and frightens us is the difficulty
of acquiring and exercising it. Now self-
denial removes the difficulty. He who has
learnt to discipline himself possesses the key
to all the virtues. In this consists the im-
mense importance of mortification in the life
of virtue.

5. The same is true of merit, without which
we cannot gain heaven. Now self-denial is
the most sure method of gaining merit, be-
cause it opposes our natural feelings and

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 81

cannot possibly be an illusion, and it is also
the most meritorious because the most diffi-
cult of all works and makes possible the ex-
ercise of the most exalted virtues. How
eagerly we would seek for every sacrifice
and every little act of self-denial if eternity
were upon us and the merit of our actions
were about to be decided! And how many
such acts, great and small, we could perform
each day with a little care !

6. If this be so, then without doubt the
best spiritual teacher is he who urges us to
self-denial, the best book, that which brings
before us the practice of mortification.
'' The greater violence thou offerest thyself,
the greater progress thou wilt make,'' says
old Thomas of Kempen. This is certain,
that true and unerring spirituality is to
cleanse one's heart from sin, to perform vir-
tuous acts and thus to uproot inordinate
passions. All this one can do by self-denial,
and by it only. Mortification is the touch-
stone of a true Christian life.

7. Lastly, we desire to be, and must be,
men of our own time, modern, practical
men. This means, rightly understood, that
we must live in our own time and appropri-
ate and develop in ourselves all that is good

82 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

in its point of view and its efforts. There is
nothing in this displeasing to God. On the
contrary, such ideals and interests are al-
ways gnide-posts by which He conducts man-
kind and each age along the way that leads
to the end He has appointed. To-day there
is much talk and ado about education, cul-
ture, progress and civilization in general,
and in particular about the development of
individuality, personality and character.
And rightly so. For of what use is all ex-
ternal progress, all science, all art and gov-
ernment, if the individual remains unedu-
cated, barbarous and worthless, a moral beg-
gar and wretched slave of the most disgrace-
ful passions in the midst of the earthly
splendor he has produced? As the Prophet
says: *^ Their land is filled with silver and
gold: and there is no end of their treasures
. . . and man hath bowed himself down,
and man hath been debased. ' ' ^ But of what
does the cultivation of character, personal-
ity and individuality consist, except in the
training, development and strengthening of
the will in the direction of all that is good,
noble and praiseworthy? And how is this
education to be attained and won? By noth-

1 Isaias ii, 7, 9.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 83

ing if not by self-denial. Self-denial is the
test of the strength of onr will ; the will must
pass through this school if it is to become
an instrument for good.

8. When this schooling is accomplished,
man is restored to the honor and glory in
which he was originally created by God.
Every act of self-denial and self-mastery
brings him back nearer to the divine proto-
type. Then he becomes what God intends
him to be, an image of his Creator, a sanctu-
ary of justice, wisdom, order, beauty, free-
dom and true faith. But all this is secured
only at the cost of self-denial.

CHAPTEE IV

CHAKACTEEISTICS OF SELF-DENIAL

The end of self-denial is a glorious one.
But not every kind, but only the right kind
of self-denial attains it. To be the right
kind, it must possess the following character-
istics :

1. In the first place, it must be constant.
There are men who are willing to deny them-
selves occasionally, casually, once in a while,
because they cannot help themselves and can-

84 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

not evade it without disadvantage. That is
not enough. We must practise self-denial
regularly, from principle, interiorly and as
the business of life. We must be resolved
to wrestle with ourselves, not to let ourselves
go, to be stern with ourselves, otherwise we
cannot prevail over our disordered passions,
over the evil that is in us and that ever
threatens and lies in wait for us. We can-
not overlook the fact that such evil is not
with us merely occasionally and casually.
It is, alas! a heritage of our nature, which
we bring into the world with us and which
follows us all our life long. Evil is a law
within us, St. Paul says,^ a perpetual, rooted
habit and a firmly established power. Now
habit can only be overcome by habit, a law
can only be displaced by another law, power
by another power of equal strength. He who
will be secure, then, must take this for his
motto: you must overcome yourself, you
must do violence to yourself, or evil will be
your master.

2. The effort to subdue self must, in the
second place, be comprehensive, extending to
every department of our life. Self-denial
can leave nothing neglected, but must include

1 Rom. vii, 23.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 85

all, body and soul, every individual faculty,
the understanding, will and passions. Ev-
ery passion we tolerate is an enemy in our
rear that may seize us and cause us to fall.
Who would have thought that avarice would
have made a traitor and a suicide of an apos-
tle? Every such passion is an evil spirit
that may strangle us.

3. Thirdly, this effort must be continuous
and unbroken, While we pause in our cam-
paign, evil is continually at work within us.
Like a tape-worm it constantly renews itself,
like weeds in a garden it grows unceasingly.
Therefore we must have the hoe ever at hand.
It is hard to subdue self and to counteract
this evil growth; and this difficulty can only
disappear through use and habit. A heavy
wagon on the road goes with sufficient ease
as long as it is kept going; but how many
shouts and cracks of the whip are necessary
if it has to be started again after a long de-
lay! So is it with self-denial. After each
long neglect the difficulty begins afresh.
And so one goes on being afraid and hesi-
tating all one 's life.

4. The last characteristic is that self-de-
nial must not only be a matter of defense,
but must always advance to the attack and

86 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

command a position of offense. That is a
leading principle in the warfare of this world
and not less so in spiritual combat. We
must not wait until we are attacked, but must
take the initiative in the assault. Otherwise
it may happen that we are surprised and find
it too late to oppose the enemy. It is always
easier to attack than to defend. In the one
case we make our own terms to our own ad-
vantage, in the other we are the sufferers to
our loss. If you wish for peace, be prepared
for war. These are the tactics urged by St.
Ignatius on his disciples in the Exercises:
not to be content with what is necessary
merely, but to advance beyond this. If we
are tempted to exceed in our food or to
shorten our appointed time of prayer, let us
straightway take a little less of the one and
give a little more time to the other. That
is to be a true soldier in Christ's Kingdom.
Thus we become terrible to our wicked enemy-
These are the characteristics of true self-
denial. This is the armory of the mighty
men of Israel. With it — and only with it —
we are a match for every enemy.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 87

CHAPTER V

SOME CONSIDEKATIONS

There is no denying tliat true mortifica-
tion is no easy business. In that it is like
every serious, great and holy undertaking.
How otherwise could its results be so grand
and so beautiful! In this world nothing is
to be had for nothing ; and what costs nothing
is worth nothing. Therefore, it is no wonder
that various perplexities and objections pre-
sent themselves. That has always been the
case and belongs to the very nature of the
undertaking.

1. The first thought may well be, how is
it possible to lead, and persevere in, a life of
mortification I The law of self-denial is laid
down by our Divine Saviour, and that for all
men. It is the simple consequence of the
fall: there could be no other. We must ac-
cept the fact. The alternative is either to
overcome ourselves or to fall away. Self-
denial is, moreover, demanded by our reason
and admitted to be necessary by all serious
and sensible men. The characteristics enu-
merated in the last chapter follow inevit-
ably from its very scope, since without them

88 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

its end cannot be attained. Now what God
commands, what all reasonable men recognize
as right, what reason not only approves but
demands, must certainly be possible and at-
tainable. As a matter of fact, countless
souls have attained and are attaining it.
Why then should not we! Help and means
are ready to our hand; we have to do noth-
ing alone. St. Paul ends his lament over our
manifold inward misery, not with a cry of
despair, but an exclamation of joyful hope
and conscious triumph : ^ ' Unhappy man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of
this death! The grace of God, by Jesus
Christ our Lord.^' ^ We have grace, we have
prayer, we have the inexhaustible pliability
and power of endurance of the human will^
we have the grand assurance of victory in
God and through God.

2. ^^But is not this practice of mortification
dangerous and injurious to the health!'' It
can be, under certain circumstances, if not
exercised with prudence. It is imprudent,
first, if a man does not keep in mind the mo-
tive of self-denial, but proceeds blindly.
That motive is, not to injure, but to help
nature. As soon as real injury appears, care

iRom. vii, 24, 25.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 89

must be taken. A trifling and passing incon-
venience is no injury and no danger. It is
imprudent again, if we do not clearly dis-
tinguish the object of mortification, i. e., what
is sinful, dangerous and useless — ^not nature
itself, nor what is good and temperate. It is
the former, not the latter, that must be
guarded against and removed. Thirdly, it
would be imprudent to wish to force every-
thing at once. So long as God gives us time,,
we must allow ourselves time also. Nature
and grace work slowly; only let us &e at work
constantly. Finally, it is imprudent to pro-
ceed merely according to one's own judg-
ment, without guidance and counsel. Let us
leave the how, when and how much to the
judgment of an experienced spiritual guide.
Let us act accordiag to these hiats, and morti-
fication will do us no harm. Far more
dangerous and hurtful is it not to mortify
ourselves. Many more men injure them-
selves and die through too little than through
too much self-renunciation and mortification,
and with far less honor.

'^But it is and remains hard.'* Let us
not forget that it is no less hard to neglect
mortification and to give the reins to our pas-
sions. Enjoyment is short, repentance long.

7

90 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

And the difficulty, too, becomes ever less with
practice. Interior satisfaction, peace and
consolation render the trouble and distaste
but trifling. Mortification remains hard, in-
deed, to the end, if it is not always practised
on principle and with perseverance. We are
truly soul-sick, and if we would be well, we
must submit to the cure. ^'I will!'' How
much that is hard has that word overcome,
how much that is great and beautiful has it
accomplished! Will then, only will, and all
is well.

CHAPTEE VI

EXTERIOR MORTIFICATION"

1. Exterior mortification consists in the
use of the moral power to restrain and em-
ploy the outward senses and faculties of the
body in due order and discipline, according to
the demands of reason and conscience.

2. The object of exterior mortification is,
in general, to guard the senses from going
astray and from all inordinate activity, and
to make them disposed to and constant in all
that is good. In other words, we must with-
draw the senses from all dangerous occa-
sions, must forbid ourselves all that flatters

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 91

sensuality, that has no reason but mere en-
joyment, and accustom our body to bear what
is disagreeable and contrary to its desires.

We must restrain the eyes from curiosity
and not allow ourselves to see and to read
everything, particularly what may be the oc-
casion of danger to our senses ; the ears from
mere inquisitiveness and useless conver-
sation; the palate from seeking luxurious
dainties. We must be content with every-
thing, not complain of our food and not ex-
ceed in the amount we take. The greatest
restraint should be observed with regard to
drink. Our senses must be accustomed to
earnest work, to moderation in sleep, to hard-
ness, to the bearing of fatigue, cold and heat.
A very general, safe and yet helpful means
of self-denial is watchfulness as to our
behavior, that it correspond with our posi-
tion and our circumstances.

3. As to the mode of practising exterior
mortification, prudence and a wise modera-
tion are especially necessary. The end of
mortification, not to injure but to support
nature, is always the determining factor.
An important rule is, not to continue long in
the practice of the same form of mortification,
but to change from time to time. A single

92 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

form of abstinence generally does no harm.
A manner of life that helps people, especially
young people, to maintain good health, is al-
ways to be recommended and followed.
^'Little but steady" was the rule recom-
mended by a saint with regard to these morti-
fications.

4. The chief motive for practising exterior
mortification lies in the present moral condi-
tion of our bodily nature. From a Christian
point of view, the body, since the fall, has
been a power for sin and evil. Holy Scrip-
ture calls it simply ' ' The body of sin, ^ ' i ' ^ the
law of sin, ' ' 2 < ^ ^j-^^ flesh that lusteth against
the Spirit."^ Therefore, St. Paul chastised
his body,^ and he cites this mortification as
a true test of his apostolic mission. This
chastisement of the body is altogether a
Christian idea. The concupiscence that
tends to sin resides indeed only in the soul.
But soul and body mutually interpenetrate
and form one being. Because of this inti-
mate union it comes to pass that what hap-
pens in the senses forthwith passes into the
soul and leads to sin by consent on the soul's
part. Who does not know what tumult and
what mischief may arise from an unguarded

1 Rom. vi, 6. 3 Gal. v, 17.

2 Rom. vii, 23. 4 I Cor. ix, 27.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 93

look? Most temptations arise in the soul
through the senses. To hold the senses in
check is, then, to be beforehand with tempta-
tions and to deprive evil of its power. But
the purpose of exterior mortification is not
only to rid the body of inordinate passion and
the allurement of sensual impressions, but
also of repugnance and hesitancy with regard
to what is good, of timidity, sloth, and af-
fection, and to endow it, on the other hand,
with ease, agility, cheerfulness and persever-
ance in the performance of all good. To at-
tain this there is no better means than to
mortify the senses and the flesh.

Even the soul profits by bodily mortifica-
tion. Chief of all it gains humility. The
honorable treatment it has to bestow on the
body, continually reminds the spirit of its
own weakness and liability to sin, and so de-
livers it from pride, the root of all sin,
and makes it careful and humble in avoid-
ing danger. The spirit furthermore gains
strength over the flesh, zeal, courage, energy,
joy, and especially ease in prayer. By the
exercise of exterior penance, which consists
in nothing else but bodily mortification, the
spirit renews her youth like the eagle and ac-
quires power for fresh flights from the dull

94 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

earth below to the heights of the eternal
home.

5. Finally, the saints, each and all, even
the gentlest, kindest, and most lovable,
preach exterior mortification to ns; and in
doing so they are bnt the living interpreters
of our Lord's life and example. And they
went as far in exterior severity as their po-
sition and circumstances permitted. Cer-
tainly the love of bodily mortification lies
deep in the spirit of Christianity. He who
thinks lightly of it and casts it aside will
never become a spiritual man.

CHAPTER VII

INTEEIOE MORTIFICATION-

1. Interior self-denial, as contrasted with
exterior, is concerned with the training and
ordering of the interior powers of the soul,
to preserve them from evil, confirm them in
good and make them capable of performing
it.

By these interior faculties we mean the un-
derstanding, the will, the imagination and
the sensuous appetitive faculty.

2. The significance and importance of in-

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 95

terior mortification are evident when we
compare it with exterior self-deniaL This
latter is but a means, a condition and a fruit
of the former. The interior is at once the
end and the source of the exterior. All the
moral value of exterior mortification comes
from interior mortification. Without the
latter, indeed, the former has no real mean-
ing, and is but the observance of the fakirs,
or the sort of training one can give to beasts.
Under certain conditions the exterior morti-
fication may even be supplied by interior, by
solitude, recollection of spirit and detach-
ment of heart. Finally, exterior mortifica-
tion can only be practised under limitations
of place, time, and circumstances ; but interior
can and must be employed everywhere, al-
ways, and without any limitations.

Secondly, the importance of interior morti-
fication is evident from the relation it bears
to morality and the general effort towards
a virtuous life. Moral order and disorder,,
sin and merit, depend upon and proceed
from our inferior spiritual nature. In that,
in our understanding and our free will, lies
the whole moral content of life and the re-
sponsibility of our deeds. "What our out-
ward nature adds is not of their essence. In

96 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

the heart sin is connnitted, as our Saviour
tells us: '^From the heart come forth evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These
are the things that defile a man. For that
which proceeds from the mouth comes forth
from the heart. ' ' ^

Interior mortification possesses in general
all the true conditions and signs of solid
virtue. That is solid, in the first place, which
proceeds from a true and solid principle, not
from passion, selfishness and mere impulse,
but from God Himself, from a supernatural
motive and a loyal will; that is solid, too,
which costs us something and is difficult to
us; to do such an act is contrary to our fal-
len nature and a sure sign that we do not
seek ourselves; that is solid, finally, which
helps our progress, i. e., which removes the
hindrances we oppose to God's gifts of grace.
x\ll these conditions of true, solid virtue are
to be found only in interior mortification.
On this account it is always considered and
set forth by all spiritual teachers and saints
as the unfailing test of virtue, of perfection
and sanctity. Thus the infallible Teacher of
sanctity, the Divine Saviour, regarded virtue,

1 St. Matth. XV, 19, 20, 18.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 97

and by this standard He judged it. The
Pharisees, those men of the later Judaism
that made such claim to virtue, were to Him,
in spite of their exterior sanctity, mere
covered and whited sepulchres full of filthi-
ness and corruption. ^

3. If we ask, then, how, in particular, we
are to mortify ourselves, the answer is : first,
in that which concerns our calling in life,
in whatever hinders us from fulfilling it per-
fectly; secondly, in what we chiefly need in
view of our own particular difficulties and
natural defects, whether interior or exterior ;
and thirdly, in whatever God wills and com-
mands us to do.

CHAPTEE VIII

MOKTIFICATION OF THE INTELLECT

We can now enter on the consideration of
a special faculty, which can and must be the
object of mortification.

1. When we speak of the intellect, the ob-
ject of mortification can only be something
defective or inordinate of which we are
guilty — something excessive or defective in

iSt. Matth. xxiii, 27.

98 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

the cultivation or the use of the intellectual
faculty.

2. The understanding is the faculty of ap-
prehending truth ; and truth is gained by the
reception of knowledge. In the acquisition
of knowledge the cultivation of the intellect
consists, and care for such cultivation is our
first and most necessary duty, because the
intellect is the distinctive and principal
faculty of man and, in a true sense, is most
needed for his life's welfare. None can make
use of an ignorant mind, neither God, nor
the world, nor the devil.

3. Now, the acquisition of knowledge may,
first of all, be neglected. The knowledge we
have to acquire must be certain, plain, suf-
ficient and comprehensive for our state in
life. Frivolity, superficiality and intellec-
tual sloth must be overcome. Among those
things that we have to know we must reckon
as most important the knowledge of religious
truths, those high and eternal truths which
reveal to us the great relations between our-
selves and the world about us, between the
world and God and eternity, and which give
us a true and a Christian view of the world.
Without question this is the highest knowl-
edge the human understanding can acquire.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 99

and it is bound to acquire it. Without this,
all other knowledge lacks both foundation
and coherency. From it Christian princi-
ples of life and of moral conduct must be
acquired. Without them man has no in-
terior support. But these principles we find
in the Faith, which must therefore be earn-
estly learnt and carried into practice.

4. But it is also possible to exceed in learn-
ing and study. The inordinate lust for
knowledge, learning merely for learning's
sake, intellectual curiosity and the mania to
know everything without distinction and pur-
pose, what is needless, useless, or dangerous
as well as what is too high and unattainable
by us, out of mere ambition and vanity — all
this must be overcome.

Old writers, therefore, distinguish as a
separate virtue what they call studio sit as y
which opposes and moderates this inordinate
desire ; and rightly so. Many harmful conse-
quences result from this fault, but the chief
of them are a false intellectual balance and,
since the passion for knowledge is often
stronger than the capacity, either perverse
and wrong ideas and views, or a fatal super-
ficiality, inconstancy and utter dissipation.
Nothing claims our whole nature so come-

100 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

pletely as inquiry and study; and as a conse-
quence of inordinate indulgence of this desire
an inconsolable desolation seizes on the heart,
with an incapacity for prayer, not to speak
of that continual weakness of the will which
characterizes so many scholars to their dis-
advantage.

We must discriminate with regard to
knowledge as with bodily nourishment. Tbo
much food overburdens the stomach, too
much knowledge puffs up the mind. Knowl-
edge is not the highest good; truth stands
higher. Without truth, knowledge is mere
deceit and falsehood. Therefore, study and
inquiry must follow a certain order : we must
learn first what is necessary, then what is
useful, then what is pleasant.

5. Let us, finally, beware of hardness and
inflexibility in our views and judgments. A
pious state of mind cannot exist side by side
with hardness. Piety is always united to
simplicity, kindness and humility, and none
of these are to be found in obstinacy of judg-
ment. On the contrary, it leads to strife, and
makes us unloving and unloved. Intellectual
hardness is a kind of fanaticism, and does not
make for truth ; one is best out of the way of
fanatics.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 101

Intellectual obstinacy is the enemy of all
truth and knowledge. There has never been
a heresy but took its rise from this madness
of private judgment. It does not pause even
before God and the Church. Thus it rejects
not only speculative truth but moral truth
as well, and often even the practical knowl-
edge and prudence with regard to life that re-
sides in the intellect. There is nothing more
unpractical in real life than imprudence, and
there is nothing more imprudent than will-
fulness and obstinacy in one's own opinion.
We do not really believe that we possess all
wisdom and have found the ultimate answer
to all questions. What we do not know is in-
finitely more than what we do. To think
for ourselves is good, but it is also good and
often better to listen and accept what others
say. Independence is good, too, but not in
opposition to the truth. Ejiowledge of self
is the best remedy against stubbornness, for
it makes us humble and wise. The wisest
men are always the humblest.

102 THEEE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER IX

MORTIFICATION OF THE WILL

1. The mortification, or training, of the
will is of the highest importance, and that
for three reasons.

First, the will is one of man's most glori-
ous faculties. Truth and goodness are his
life. With the understanding he compre-
hends what is true, with the will he seizes
upon what is good. In a true sense the will
is, indeed, his highest faculty. By itself, it is
blind ; the understanding must show and hold
forth what is good before it, in order that it
may strive after it. The will usually fol-
lows, but not always. The understanding is
under the necessity of accepting the truth,
but the will need not turn to the only good.
It is free, and because it is and must be so,
neither man nor even God can force it. Be-
cause of this freedom and spontaneity the will
is so important and so sublime that it is a
true image of the freedom of Grod. Good
and evil, man's whole moral life, hangs upon
the will and is determined by it. On this ac-
count it is the apple of discord between God

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 103

and our wicked enemy. Man's happiness
and misery are decided by his own wilL

In the second place, the will is in extreme
need of training and mnst therefore be sub-
jected to severe discipline. Left to itself it
is utterly infirm and unstable in its purposes.
In consequence of original sin it has become
still weaker and more feeble. It was the
will to which original sin gave the most
grievous blow, and ever since it has been
drawn on the one side by interior concupis-
cence, on the other by exterior temptation.
On these slender threads hangs the power of
the will, and therefore man's salvation.
This very frailty is the reason why God has
provided incomparably more interior helps to
virtue for man's will than for his understand-
ing.

Thirdly, the human will is capable of being-
trained and in the highest degree responsive
to wise discipline and education, while the
capacity for such discipline is far more evi-
dent and brings far greater results in the
case of the will than in that of the under-
standing. Man can subject his will, but not
his understanding. On every side he finds
limits to his intellectual power, but with God's

104 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

grace Ms will can do all things. We see this
in the saints : it is their good will that the
Church has canonized.

2. Now the discipline of mortification has
to set the will free from three special de-
fects and faults.

The first is injustice and unchastity. Just-
ice, sincerity, and purity of the will consist in
subjection and obedience to reason and con-
science in all that they prescribe as good
and necessary ; impurity and dishonor consist
in resistance to and rebellion against what is
known to be good and needful. This is the
worst sin that the will can be guilty of. It
must conform to reason and conscience, and
this is no slight upon its royal dignity, for
in itself the will is blind and must obey if it
is not to stumble and fall. Ultimately its
submission is to God Himself, to the supreme
rule of goodness which He has revealed
through our reason and conscience. In order
that this purity of will may be complete, we
must do and undertake nothing without
reason and perform all the good that cor-
responds to its demands.

The second fault is stiffness and stubborn-
ness, irresolution, inclination to delay what
we know to be our duty. We must, certainly,

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 105

consider first, but then we must act, and that
with energy and courage and without delay.
It is possible to be too late and to pay too
dear, for heaven and hell may be at stake.

Weakness of the will, lack of enduring and
persevering power, is the third fault. It is
very often the result of some attachment to
an earthly good. But such attachment is al-
ways a bondage and brings us no honor, be-
cause it fetters the freedom of our motives
and our conduct, degrades us, and makes us
petty, cowardly, and pitiable. Nothing helps
us in this but to disengage ourselves forcibly
from what hinders us. Thus only our heart
can be free and regain its strength and peace.
This weakness of the will may arise from
fickleness, from lack of perseverance in the
face of difficulties, or from fear of undertak-
ing what is high and hard for us. Let us re-
member that a will without power is useless
for this world, where there is always a cross
to carry and contradiction to endure. Are
our resolutions to last only during fine
weather? A will without power to resist is
really no will at all. With such a will we are
good for nothing but a weather-cock.

3. The best means to train the will is

prayer. Prayer in itself is a school of
8

106 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

patience, that is, prayer at the appointed
times under all circumstances. Besides, by
prayer comes grace, without which we can-
not restrain our stubborn will and set it free
from its changeableness and inconstancy.

Plain and firm principles and resolutions
form another means. If we fail in accom-
plishment and perseverance in spite of these,
what should we be without them ! A definite
rule of life and arrangement of the day serve
the same end. Such a rule is for those liv-
ing in the world what the Eule of their
Order is for Eeligious. We must observe
this rule constantly, or quickly resume it if
it has suffered any disturbance.

The temptations that come upon us are also
an excellent occasion for strengthening the
will. They are conflicts that develop our
courage and our determination. They come
so frequently and from so many directions
that we cannot but become established in
virtue and strength of character if we
bravely defend ourselves against them.

An excellent means, finally, of training the
will, is to discipline ourselves in the many
small, indifferent things that present them-
selves during the day. These things are lit-
tle in themselves, trifling and indifferent, but

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 107

they occur often, and every time the will gains
more power. The thing is small, the effect
great.

4. Particular, deliberate, and systematic
training and formation of the will is the more
necessary and important now-a-days, when
undue exaggerated attention is bestowed
upon the intellect, while the ivill is neglected
and like a wild bush on an open heath stands
exposed to every storm. Later on, when
stricken on every side by its unrestrained
passions, and left desolate, it becomes like a
poor criminal haled to punishment. No one
has taken the trouble to train it. One can-
not repeat too often: sufficient attention is
not given to the express, fundamental and
thorough training and strengthening of the
will. We soon learn enough to be good, use-
ful men. If we had bestowed half as much
trouble and attention on the training of our
will, we should have become saints long ago.

CHAPTER X

OF THE PASSION'S

For the coherence and better understand-
ing of what follows, a few words on our pas-
sions are needed here.

108 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

1. The passions (not in the sense of evil,
inordinate desires, but as natural facts in our
spiritual life) are emotions of the sensuous
faculty or lower will corresponding to the
natural pleasure or displeasure presented to
the soul by the senses, the imagination and,
in general, by any sensuous emotion. These
emotions are, in relation to what is pleasant,
an eager desire; in relation to what is disa-
greeable, dislike and aversion. There are,
therefore, two fundamental passions, love and
hate, with their subordinate passions : on the
one hand desire, hope, courage, and joy, on
the other aversion, melancholy, fear and de-
spair.

2. The passions have their root in our
nature, which is at once spiritual and physi-
cal, and serve to the maintenance and well-
being of the individual by helping him to
strive strenuously and easily after the good
that corresponds to his nature and to turn
away from evil.

The sensuous emotions that precede any
exercise of the conscience or the higher will
are indifferent and without moral value, but
after the will has decided concerning them,
they can become occasions and instruments
of virtue or of sin, and thus be good or bad.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 109

In consequence of the fall, the passions are
stirred and make their demands without pre-
science and permission of the higher will.
They even continue in spite of our reason
and higher will resisting their desires, and
thus cause disorder, dissension, and unrest
within us, and they can become occasions of
temptation and even of sin if the higher will
consents and submits to them. But it is al-
ways in the power of the will to decide freely
whether to consent or refuse.

But the passions also bring us benefits and
work our good; they are indeed great helps
towards good. They give facility and perse-
verance, impel us to heroic virtue and acquire
for us great merit, if they are under the active
guidance of the higher will. "When they are
brought into play, man is more likely to throw
his whole heart and energy into what he is
doing. Moreover, the sensible emotion may
be an earnest of persevering activity in what
is undertaken.

3. The possession and use of the passions
are of the greatest importance in the spirit-
ual life. They form a mighty power, as for
evil, so for the achievement of good. Some
one says that they are bad counselors but
powerful helpers. Therefore, we must with-

110 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

draw them from evil and gain them for good.
We have, and must have, passions ; the only
thing to remember is to use them rightly.
They will not let themselves be treated des-
potically, they will not be compelled, ex-
tirpated, or destroyed. We must use them
diplomatically, i, e,, either by turning away
from the thought that has come to us and
busily employing ourselves otherwise; or' by
turning our attention from what is forbid-
den by putting before ourselves some good
thought, and thus reaping good from evil.
The devotions to the Divine Heart of Jesus
and to the Holy Ghost are of the highest
service to us in our efforts in acquiring the
right use of our passions.

CHAPTER XI

SLOTH

We now pass to the consideration of
certain particular passions and emotions.

1. Sloth is a real heaviness of the soul and
its faculties, which tends inordinately to rest
and inactivity.

In the first place, there is sloth of the
intellect. It consists in sluggishness of

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 111

thought, in useless, vague occupation of the
mind, in building castles in the air, in mere
theorizing, in exaggerated, confused thought,
in dissipation, in allowing our minds to re-
main asleep and drowsy, which is especially
apt to happen at prayer-time.

The will, too, has its own kind of sloth,
which consists of lazy and grumbling discon-
tent because everything is not pleasant and
comfortable, in irresolution with regard to
duty, in perpetual procrastination, and in
living without any plan, or definite determi-
nation and intention.

With regard to the body, sloth betrays it-
self by slowness, indolence and too much
ease. The slothful man would rather stand
than walk, rather sit than stand, rather lie
than sit. Long sleep is the chief delight of
the sluggard.

2. Sluggishness in spiritual things is to be
overcome by earnest and frequent colloquies,
by vocal prayer, reverent external behavior
and change in our method of prayer. In all
we do or suffer, we must, without excitement,
strive for real activity of spirit. What must
be done we must not delay to do. To do what
is useless is nothing but another way of do-
ing nothing. Let order rule in all our af-

112 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

fairs, and conscientious loyalty in the fulfill-
ment of our resolutions. An extremely
effective means of combating sloth, whether
spiritual or bodily, is the use of bodily pen-
ance and self-denial in general. It over-
comes the heaviness of the flesh and gives joy
to the soul.

3. There are many reasons why we should
keep sloth at a distance.

It is the universal enemy of all mankind.
To a certain extent it is inherent in every-
one, because we all have a material nature.
It exists even in the most active and vigor-
ous, but in each according to his own special
character, sometimes as sloth of the under-
standing, sometimes of the will, sometimes
of the body. A phlegmatic temperament,
melancholy, unrestrained fancy and imagi-
nation are only varieties of sloth.

Sloth is a cunning enemy too, a sweet
slavery. It grows up with us, we are used to
it, and have no need to seek it. It knows
how to hide itself so as to be invisible. The
sin of sloth is as it were a sin with no body;
it almost persuades us to think it no sin at
all ; it does its work like a friendly pickpocket.
Finally, sloth is a wicked and spiteful enemy.
It paralyses and weakens the whole spiritual

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 113

life. When we fail and accomplish noth-
ing, the blame may be safely laid on sloth.
It blunts the mind and will ; it depresses the
spirit, keeps the flesh awake and clamorous,
robs us of time and of incalculable merit and
injures our spiritual life in manifold ways.
The worst is, that sloth usually attaches it-
self to the most important things in our
spiritual life, such as meditation, particular
examination of conscience and penitential
exercises. It much resembles lukewarmness,
that pest of the spiritual world, and is its
double and ally. No one desires to be its
prey — a sufficient reason to use every effort
not to be so.

CHAPTER XII

FEAE

Nearly related to sloth is fear.

1. Fear is a contracting and tormenting
sensation of the soul in face of some threat-
ening evil that can indeed be overcome, but
not without considerable difficulty. Its ob-
ject and cause is this approaching evil, the
averting of which is possible but costs trouble.
Its natural effect on the soul and will is dis-

114 THUEE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

quieting, paralysing and enervating. This ef-
fect is the stronger, the more serious the evil,
the harder the effort needed to avoid it, and
the greater one's weakness. The degree of
weakness is increased by uncertainty and con-
fusion of the understanding, exaggeration of
the imagination and emotions and excitement
of the nerves. Therefore aged persons,
children, and women are most exposed and
subject to the influence of fear. Fear even
affects the bodily faculties, and, under cer-
tain conditions, to the extent of causing im-
mobility and even unconsciousness. With
this abnormal power that fear possesses, we
are not concerned here, but only with its
influence on our will in ordinary daily life.
There too, its effect is everywhere limiting,
enervating and paralysing. In this respect
fear is nearly related to sloth.

2. For the feeling of fear to arise is
natural, and in itself no weakness. The fool
and the beast, runs the saying, do not know
fear. The first is not in possession of his
intellect, while the other has no intellect with
which to recognize and estimate the danger.
Moderate fear is even a sign of prudence and
foresight. But man, with his intellectual
and moral nature, must be master of the sen-

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 115

sation of fear, and not allow it to turn him
from his duty; for then it is indeed weakness.

The first motive to oppose to fear, for re-
sisting it, and not allowing ourselves to be
mastered by it, is that it can induce men to
offend against the order of reason, and that
is sin. According to the right order, feeling
and sense must be subject to reason. But
reason tells us not only that we must avoid
one thing and strive after another, but that
there are some things we must avoid and
strive after more than others, and even
that we must often pursue a good at the
risk of unpleasant consequences. AVhen,
therefore, we cease out of fear of evil to
strive for some necessary good, in other
words, when we fail in our duty, such failure
is an imperfection and a sin, either of indol-
ence or of despair. So ignoble fear leads us,
alas ! just because of some unpleasantness in
our daily life, to many disloyalties against
duty and conscience — reason enough for be-
ing on our guard against fear and exerting
all our strength that it may not overpower
us.

Still more injurious, we may say, is the
effect of fear upon the active pursuit of what
is good and the effort to attain perfection.

116 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

To extirpate fanlts and disorders is the first
necessity of progress, and a principal means
in this direction is the laying open, the con-
fession, of our sins and imperfections, when
it is suitable and when we can receive counsel.
Now fear hinders this, either by false shame
as to the revealing of our imperfections, or
by the dread of amending our lives. How
important, again, to perfection it is to at-
tend to God's inspirations and to follow them ;
and what hinders these gracious intentions
and leadings so much as fear, the sloth and
cowardice of our nature? Finally, we can-
not entertain the idea of perfection without
higher principles and more determined ef-
forts ; we can attain it only by the sacrifice of
comfort, ease and that pleasant tranquillity
of life in which our nature delights so much.
Now it is fear that hangs upon us like lead,
and prevents any result when God vouch-
safes to inspire us with the thought of some
sacrifice or lofty purpose. And so we remain
on the low level of an ordinary life. The
mischief appears in countless ways, if it is
allowed to, making the soul timid and averse
to any important undertaking for the glory of
God and the salvation of men, such as the
vocation to a hard and sublime life. The

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 117

injury done is incalcnlable. We see it in the
case of the rich young man, whose beautiful
vocation, which our Lord Himself offered and
set before him, came to nothing because of
that sadness which his fears doubled. The
mole is a sad pest to the gardener; and the
mole in God's garden is fear. It destroys
countless lives. The sunflower of perfection
blooms only under the clear sky of joy and
courage; beneath the sad, cold light of
cowardice and despondency nothing thrives
that is great or beautiful. He who cannot
master fear must renounce perfection.

If then we would live a bright and truly
happy life, let us banish fear. There is in-
deed evil in the world, and the thought of it
affrights us and destroys our peace and joy.
Fear fixes its gaze on what is evil; it sees
evils where they do not exist and exagger-
ates them where they do. Fear is a real be-
holder of ghosts; let us have nothing to do
with its apparitions. The fearful man tor-
tures himself with imaginary ills — a kind of
martyrdom that brings him little honor and
glory. A brave man, on the other hand, who
goes calmly along the way of duty in spite of
fear's specters, manifests a lofty understand-

1 St. Matth. xix, 16-22.

118 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

ing and, still more, a valiant will. What can
overcloud his joy or spoil his peace, whom the
spirit of fear and the evils of the world do not
appall! The sun does not merely shine for
itself, it gives light to all within its reach and
upon which it shines. So it is with the brave
man ; from him flow courage and joy to thou-
sands of others.

3. This is all true and soon said. But is
there an effectual means of overcoming fear
and being truly brave! Feeling and imagi-
nation present the greatest difficulty to the
will in surmounting the torment. It is these
which exaggerate real conditions and intrude
their terrors and supposed impossibilities
before the understanding and the will. Feel-
ing itself does not depend on the will. What
is in the power of the will is to restrain and
modify the preponderance and importunity
of the feelings, so that they may not be al-
ways insisting upon the dangers and diffi-
culties that lie before us. We must, there-
fore, strive to make our feelings obey like a
well-broken hound that naturally starts up
and gives tongue at the first noise he hears,
but at a word from his master lies down
quietly.

Three means are useful in order to attain

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 119

this end. The first is the realization that, in
most cases, that which is charming or terrify-
ing in temporal things is the effect of onr
imagination, which exaggerates their appear-
ances. In reality only eternity is blessed or
terrible. Let us stamp deeply on onr minds,
as a true principle, that ^4t's three-quarters
imagination,'' and say so to ourselves when-
ever fear approaches us. By such thoughts
we take the edge oif the difficulty. The
second means is to make a resolute attempt
to grasp the difficulty, and to convince our-
selves practically that it is thus and not other-
wise. It may seem to us that we cannot en-
dure a certain course of action which duty or
perfection demands; still let us embrace it.
Or, we are so dependent upon a certain
creature that we believe we cannot live with-
out it ; still, let us give it up. We shall find
that we do survive and that we are as well
and, perhaps, better off than before. How
often, perhaps, we have already experienced
this in our lives ! With what terror we have
looked forward to something that was com-
ing ; and when it came it was quite bearable.
Everything temporal, however hard it is,
passes away, and everything unpleasant be-
comes with time endurable. Let us encour-

120 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

age ourselves by these tlionglits. It is dread-
ful and pitiable that our imagination should
make game of us and injure our spiritual
life. It gives us untrustworthy spectacles
and false scales, so that we do not see things
as they really are and judge wrongly of their
value. Thence arise so many erroneous
judgments, so many imaginary impossibili-
ties and horrors. Imagination sees a monster
everywhere,^ and influences us to actions un-
worthy of reasonable and generous men.
Only by mastering it with a strong hand can
one be freed from its unworthy servitude and
become a man — truly a man, without fear or
reproach. This is why the old masters of
the spiritual life taught as the first and es-
sential lesson that was necessary : Corrigere
phantasiam, i. e., bring imagination under the
control of reason.

The third remedy against fear and dis-
couragement is prayer and confidence in God.
So the example of our Lord and Saviour
teaches us. We have never suffered a sweat
of blood through fear and anguish. He suf-
fered even this, to teach us that fear in itself
is no sin and no disorder. He suffered this,
to console us, to obtain grace for us and to

1 Prov. xxvi, 13.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 121

show ns the way we should follow if such
an hour of G-ethsemane should come upon us.
We must, like Him, pray humbly and per-
sistently. Thus He gained — not because He
needed it, but because He so willed — ^greater
consolation, and thus strengthened went to
meet His awful sufferings with heroic
courage. Should God permit us, at the sight
of some sacrifice He demands, to suffer dis-
couragement for a time, we can trust Him,
and be sure that He will be beside us with
His grace. And if He be with us, what is im-
possible to us, what enemy can we not sub-
due? We Christians are soldiers of God and
of Christ. Nothing so ill befits a soldier as
discouragement and cowardice. The Chris-
tian is dedicated in his Baptism to warfare
and sacrifice ; he is a noble knight who, as Al-
brecht Diirer has so splendidly pictured him,
rides straight forward on his road, undis-
mayed by death, and the devil, who specter-
like trot beside him. Only the hound, the
brave knight's playfellow, goes with drooping
tail. The Christian fears nothing but God
and sin ; all else, even death, he counts as gain
and victory.^ By death Christ and Christian-
ity have overcome the world.

1 Philip i, 21.
9

122 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

In the spiritual life too little attention is
paid to the conquest of fear and discourage-
ment. And yet fear is the hapless mother of
so many and so great disasters. Fear is the
sting by which sloth, lukewarmness, liaK-
heartedness do to death our endeavors after
higher things and condemn us to an inglori-
ous mediocrity. ^'How often have I proved
it!'' writes St. Theresa; ^4f at the beginning
of some good work I overcame the opposition
of cowardly nature, I had always reason to
congratulate myself. The greater the terror,
the more the soul wins joy from that which
seems so difficult. If I had to give advice on
this point, I would say: learn never to
pay attention to natural fear and never to
meet God's goodness with distrust if He in-
spires us with some great and high thought. ' '
Sloth and Fear are sisters and never ac-
complish anything. According to the poet
Dante, the cowardly and fearful are worthy
of neither glory nor hate; common dust are
they, and who knows whither the wind blows
them and where they lie ?

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 123

CHAPTEE XIII

ANGEE AND IMPATIENCE

1. Anger and Impatience are the inordin-
ate desire to avenge oneself. Anger presup-
poses some real or imaginary injustice or
disturbance of justice, to ourselves or others,
and desires to restore the right order by-
means of revenge and punishment. Anger
is, in general, a fault against meekness,
moderation and self-control.

2. Even as men we must combat anger and
impatience. As the impulse of anger is
usually very vehement, it hinders more than
anything else the right use of reason. Thus
it comes to pass that not only is justice
ignored, but a multitude of sins of injustice
are committed. We are often unjust to those
who are without blame and deserve our wrath
either not at all, or not in the measure we
deal out to them. Our motive, as a rule, is
not zeal for justice, or the restoration of
order, but passion and the delight of retalia-
tion. In that lies the disorder of anger, and
on this account it is sinful.

Besides, the angry man injures himself.
Anger, just because it is a disorder and a sin,

124 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

degrades Mm, hnrts his repntation and makes
liim odious. The pleasure of revenge at-
tracts him and makes him believe that indulg-
ence and forgiveness are a weakness, a lower-
ing and contempt of himself. At the root of
anger there lies illusion and confusion of
thought, and these do not elevate but debase
a man.

Much more as Christians are we bound to
restrain anger. Christ has expressly com-
manded us to be meek, to love even our
enemies, and has given His own glorious ex-
ample of patience, which all true Christians
and saints follow. The Christian plan of
battle, so wonderful and divine, is not to con-
quer force by force, but by patience and sub-
mission. This spirit is the touchstone of
true Christian virtue and perfection, and,
therefore, in a still higher degree, is de-
manded in the religious state.

Anger within right bounds, and from a true
zeal for justice, for God's honor and man's
salvation, is good, and a sublime virtue.

3. The universal remedy against anger and
impatience is meekness, which restrains the
inordinate desire for revenge and the over-
mastering sense of anger. Meekness pro-
duces, not natural inditference, stupidity or

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 125

fearfulness, but tlie love of reasonableness,
and of that beauty and nobility which are in-
herent in true meekness.

How much reason we have to practise
meekne'ss ! It is a prime necessity in this life
of ours ; nothing can be done without it.^ It
is not the loftiest of the virtues, certainly,
but scarcely any is more needful in our daily
life. Sugar is better than salt; but salt is
more important, because we use it daily and
for almost everything. Moreover, nothing
so completely wins for us the regard, confi-
dence, and affection of men as meekness. It
is always an indication of great intellectual
superiority, rectitude of judgment, ripened
experience of life and, especially, unwonted
strength of will and a good, humble and
kindly heart. What more do we need in
order to attract men's hearts, to win them
and attach them to us 1 Their souls rest with
utter confidence at the side of meekness.
Everyone flies from the neighborhood of a
volcano; and impatience and anger are vol-
canic in their nature. They do no good and
much harm, even more harm than we intend.
Everywhere we spoil God's work by impa-
tience and make it impossible for Him to

1 Hebrews x, 36.

126 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

make use of us. Impatience has no place in
the New Testament, which is the covenant of
charity, confidence and peace; while meek-
ness makes us beloved both of God and men.^
4. In order to be always patient, we must
as far as possible practise recollection, that
impatience may not take us by surprise. We
must realize that everything is possible in
this world, must be amazed at nothing and
prepared for everything. We must always
adhere to the resolution to bear all injustice
patiently, whatever it may be, and whence-
soever it may come, in whatever form, from
whatever quarter, otherwise there would be
no cross to carry. Let us be convinced that
there can never be good reason for impa-
tience. When we are excited, let us be silent,
even as regards the faults of our inferiors.
The strength of good government does not
consist in always striking inmiediately, but in
overlooking or ignoring nothing without tak-
ing measures for its improvement at a suit-
able time and under favorable circumstances.
Everyone accepts a reasonable reproof; it is
the sign of a good and generous will ; but no
one is willing to endure passion. Judge
others^ faults as you do your own, with

1 St. James i, 4.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 127

patience and forbearance. To be gentle with
good men is not the result of our own meek-
ness, but that of our surroundings. True
meekness, like true charity and every other
virtue, must be able to endure and suffer
something. Do not complain of another ; you
will only become more impatient and infect
him you blame with the same fault. In
order to attain true patience it is not enough
not to avoid occasions of impatience ; we must
rather seek them. Charity and patience are
the way to meekness. Wlien you begin to
feel impatient, think how soon the occasion
passes over. To-morrow you will not feel
the wrong any more, things will seem quite
different and you will rejoice that you did
not lose patience.

CHAPTER XIV

PKIDE

The genealogy of the family of pride is as
follows: Its mother is selfishness. Selfish-
ness has two children, pride and sensuality.
The children of pride are, first, vanity, a soft
creature, but somewhat stupid; secondly,
ambition, a restless person who wants to be
held in honor by everyone; thirdly, imperi-

128 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

ousness, who desires to be under nobody but
superior to all, the true devil's child in the
family, from whose attacks no one, not even
God Himself, is secure. All these have the
special family characteristic of striving im-
moderately and inordinately beyond their
power, of wishing to be and to appear, to
dare and undertake, more than they really
are, or can really do.

1. A special sign of pride is self-compla-
cency, which admires everything about itself
and ascribes everything to itself; another is
sensitiveness, which troubles itself over every
failure of recognition, every suspicion and
reproof, every supposed neglect. No sensi-
tive plant is so delicate as pride with respect
to its own honor. It is occupied only with
acquiring what may secure the notice and
admiration of others. It especially loves to
criticize; it cites everything before its judg-
ment seat; it judges both living and dead.
It, so to speak, apotheosizes itself. It knows
everything, no one can teach it ; it needs noth-
ing and wraps itself in complete isolation.
Such demi-gods are not infrequent in this
world; they are those who will be taught
nothing by the Church or even by God Him-
self. Pride is everywhere to be found; in

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 129

rulers and subjects, in nobles and beggars,
in learned men and peasants. It has been
epidemic in the world ever since that old de-
ceiver, the serpent, wrote in our first par-
ents ' genealogy : ' ' You shall be as gods. ' ' ^
This sentence will not lose its hold on the
minds of us children of Adam.

2. Humility is pride's direct opposite —
the grand-daughter of the virtue of temper-
ance and the daughter of interior modesty.
It moderates and extinguishes all inordinate
paroxysms of pride, of striving after honor
and recognition, and undue independence; it
seeks a praiseworthy humiliation of itself
both before self and before others ; it fosters
a slight opinion of self and is pleased if
another shares and expresses the same opin-
ion. It avoids honor, is silent about self,
endures humiliation with patience and joy.
It does not make excuses, but humbles itself
by the sincere acknowledgment of its own
wretchedness and imperfection when there is
opportunity, especially in the sacrament of
penance. Its heroic master-piece is love of
humiliation.

3. Knowledge of self goes before humil-
ity as guide, teacher, and counselor. This

1 Gen. iii, 5.

130 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

knowledge teaches us that all the good we
have or do is God's gift and work, that we
can do nothing of ourselves and have noth-
ing of our own but sin and failure. From
this flows the whole work and suffering of
humility, even the love of humiliation. The
justice and reasonableness which lie in this
self-abasement form the kernel, the soul and
motive, of the virtue of humility.

4. How many motives, then, we have to
strive against pride by a true humility !

Then only does truth dwell within us when
we are humble; humility is truth. The true
mirror of self-knowledge shows us that we
have nothing of ourselves, but all from God.
Pride is therefore falsehood, dishonor and
robbery of the Divine glory. In God's sight
pride is an abomination, in the sight of sensi-
ble men an absurdity. To think highly of
ourselves only shows that our minds are un-
utterably small. And mere honor from men
— what is it worth f

And how important humility is to the
whole spiritual life! All comes to us
through God's grace, but if we are proud,
God can give us no special graces; for His
own sake He cannot, because humility alone
renders to Him the glory that comes from

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 131

His gifts; and for oiir sakes He cannot, be-
cause graces without humility only injure
us and are occasions of greater pride.

If we desire to live a wholly pure life, free
from fault, let us be humble. Our daily
faults for the most part arise from lack of
humility. What is the reason of our neglect
of prayer, envy, discussion of our neigh-
bor's faults, detraction, immodesty, want of
obedience, irritability, daintiness with regard
to our surroundings, impatience, complaints
about our work and the disagreeable things
we meet with, melancholy, and despair! All
these, and countless other faults, vanish be-
fore humility. Little men, it is said, cannot
fall far; but pride and arrogance are bound
to fall, and often to fall low and shamefully.
It is only a great fall that will bring pride
to its senses. Pride is the source of all sins,
as humility is the foundation of all virtues,
not because it is in itself the most exalted of
all, but because it is the indispensable pre-
requisite of all right conduct. "Who can take
a single right step, if he does not know the
way, or his own powers ! This is what pride
does not know, while humility learns it by
self-knowledge. Whoever desires to do any-
thing great for God, let him love humiliation.

132 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

which is the acme of humihty. To love and
seek humiliation is the hardest of sacrifices.
It is the ^'Asses' Bridge'' of the spiritual
life, the dividing line between perfection and
imperfection. Pride is love of self carried
even to hatred of God. Humility is love of
God carried even to hatred of self. That is
the true and complete victory, God's true
honor and glory achieved within us. Then
only can He reckon absolutely upon our loy-
alty— otherwise we are always and alto-
gether unreliable. A life free from fault,
rich in virtue and joyous is the reward of
humility.

Finally, how important humility is in
order to embrace and prosecute a vocation,
and for the peace and happiness of human
companionship in general! Many strive for
a higher position, for the honor of God, as
they imagine, and in order to be able to ac-
complish more. But in reality it is only the
satisfying of their ambition that impels them.
They do not meet with success, failure dis-
gusts them and they are for giving every-
thing up. They cannot endure to be a buried
talent. God's interests are to them merely
a stirrup for their ambition to mount by.
They succeed in gaining a position, and then

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 133

pride robs them of all merit in God^s sight.
Nothing so ruins character and deprives it
of all interior strength, of independence,
steadfastness and genuineness in God^s
sight and in men's, as pride and ambition.
They are the animalia glorice — the beasts of
glory — of which Tertullian speaks. And
whence come disquiet in social life, oppres-
sion and force in high places, enmity against
all authority, whence all revolutions and all
heresies, except from pride, ambition and
the lust of mastery ?

Let us have done with ambition and its
deceptive fruit, worldly honor. Eecognition
and renown amongst men are worth no more
to us than possessions in the moon. They
do not enrich us. If a beggar praises a beg-
gar, what is the good of it? Let us seek
honor from God by the acquisition of solid
humility and self-abasement. Honor will
come to us in time : and that the true honor.

CHAPTER XV

ATTKACTION AND AVEKSION

The subject of this chapter is charity,
especially charity towards our neighbor.

134 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

1. Charity is the virtue by which we em-
brace, with our will, God as the highest Good
and for His own sake and rest in Him as
our last End. The object of charity is two-
fold : God and man, and man specially in his
relation to God, as God's possession. His
creature, and His child. God indeed loves
not only Himself, but all that is His. Our
charity, that it may be divine charity, must
embrace both God and our neighbor. But
the motive of charity is but one, namely, God,
and all else for God's sake. The order of
charity is : God first and above all, then our-
selves and finally our neighbor as ourselves.
With regard to both our neighbor and our-
selves, we must prefer mental and spiritual
to bodily interests, and therefore his spirit-
ual to our own bodily well-being, and we do
well to subordinate our bodily well-being to
his, though we are not bound to do this. Our
love is disordered when either we do not love
all for God's sake, or love anything more
than God Himself, or set our own or our
neighbor's temporal advantage before his or
our spiritual interest.

The following motives lead us to place
charity before all else.

2. Charity is the first and greatest com-

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 135

mandment, in fact, the sum and basis of all
commandments. All others are but applica-
tions of the law of charity. Through char-
ity God takes possession of the will, the basal
power of which is charity. Through charity
He possesses the whole man, and can lay any
command upon him. Through charity He
unites man in the most perfect manner to
his fellow-man and to Himself, man's last
Aim and End. So that charity is indeed the
bond of perfection in the highest sense. On
this account our Saviour designates the
Christian Eeligion as essentially the religion
of charity, and charity as the sign by which
His disciples are to be recogiiized. We have,
then, in reality but one law, the law of char-
ity, and have but one thing to do — to love.

3. The love of God and our neighbor has,
however, one adversary and enemy, which
prolongs its own life at the cost, and by the
diminishing, of that love. This enemy is in-
ordinate self-love. It values and loves self
above all, judges everything from the point
of view of self and seeks self in everything,
even in the love of our neighbor, whether we
feel aversion or attraction.

4. It is rightly said that likeness and har-
mony are the conditions and basis of charity.

136 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

So reasons for aversion or interior diminu-
tion of charity towards our neighbor may
arise from opposition of natural disposition
and unlikeness in modes of thought and
opinion and outward conduct, which, as we
say, render a certain individual unsympa-
thetic and unattractive to us. Another class
of reasons for aversion is found in real or
supposed injuries on our neighbor's part,
and from these arise, yet a third class of
reasons for aversion, i. e., uncharitable, con-
temptuous, critical and bitter thoughts and
grounds of offense, which develop into un-
charitable words, untimely and injurious ob-
servations and unpleasant differences, griev-
ously hurting charity and setting hearts at
variance, tiere we may also allude to the
gift of wit and its misuse. A witticism often
hurts more than an open insult. Wit is gen-
erally a dangerous gift. It often conceals a
lack of charity and a satanic sharpness. A
recklessly witty man is seldom a kindly one.
Only too often he seeks himself, and loves
to shine as a wit at the expense of humility
and charity.

We must avoid all this for the sake of
charity, which is so high and glorious a pos-
session. Let us never harbor knowingly and

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 137

willingly aversion and bitter thoughts in our
hearts, let us not keep in our memory, any
injustice we have suffered, nor represent our
neighbor to ourselves as unfriendly and full
of faults. It is quite useless to do so. It
does not alter the fact, and only confirms us
in anger. Uncharitable thoughts are the
first germ of aversion. Let us, then, cherish
charitable thoughts, that the contrary may
find no place in our hearts. A man who has
always loving thoughts, says Father Faber,
is certainly a saint. There are people who
seem made to vex us. They always come at
an unseasonable time and always do what
annoys and displeases us. There are others,
conspicuous for their evil habits and faults,
who do us wrong. What is to make us pa-
tient? We must retire from human society
if we are to suffer nothing unpleasant. Such
annoyances we must bear as part payment
for the advantage of living in society. It
would be very tiresome if everyone were
like ourselves. The greatest profit, indeed,
of social intercourse is the unfailing oppor-
tunities it offers for the exercise of patience
and charity. It is generally our own selfish-
ness, our imaginary troubles, our egotism
and eagerness to have our own way, our lack

10

138 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

of practice and our ineptitude in understand-
ing others and putting ourselves in their
place, which make it so hard for us to see
this. A good plan is to treat others' faults
as we treat our own. First we ignore our
faults, then we excuse them on the score of
the good points we have or think we have,
and finally we endure them, because we can-
not do anything else. Let us never speak
without good reason of others' faults. We
only make ourselves more angry, and also
make others vexed. We should not avoid
people who irritate us in order to avoid being
vexed. A much safer and much easier way
to the end we desire is to seek them out and
overcome their evil by charity. What helps
us here is to be prepared for all these diffi-
culties of social life, to expect them, to bear
and conquer them with patience. To look
on everything as possible and to be aston-
ished at nothing in this world is a wise
maxim.

5. Attraction is in itself good. It is the
magnet which draws man to man and soul
to soul, and binds them together in charity.
It is in itself an involuntary feeling, a merely
instinctive emotion. To deserve the name of

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 139

charity, it must be conscious and proceed
from reason.

Disorder may enter into this emotion, in
the first place, if its motive is not God Him-
self. He must be the motive, unless it is
to be merely natural, not divine, charity.
Affection is disordered, in the second place,
if it does not observe the rules laid down
by Grod and reason. According to His ordi-
nance, and even our own instinct, we must
extend charity to those who are nearest to
us either by nature or by divine appointment,
such as our relations and those set over us,
our benefactors, those who are in any way
conspicuous by their authority or their sanc-
tity and the gifts God has given them, and
especially to those who are chiefly in need
of our help. It is, thirdly, inordinate if it
goes out to our neighbor, not from any in-
tellectual or spiritual motive, but from phys-
ical attraction, and that perhaps to the soul's
hurt. This is no longer love of our neigh-
bor, but real selfishness, and even — from a
higher point of view — hatred of our neigh-
bor. Finally, there is disorder if, in conse-
quence of attraction to an individual, the
common good is prejudiced. We belong

140 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

after all to the human family, and are even
more bonnd to it than to the individual.

Into this category of inordinate affections
fall all merely sensuous friendships, which
are called ^ ^particulars' friendships, that
withdraw our love from those to whom it is
in the first place due and expose us to the
danger of sinning against God's command-
ments. They are a crime against mankind
in general and our own particular circle. As
the true love of God and our neighbor ele-
vates a man and makes him great and happy,
so this spurious love, which is indeed the
death of true charity, debases, belittles and
corrupts him.

6. From this caricature of charity let us
turn to the true love of God and our neigh-
bor. This love alone ennobles and enriches
us and enables us to do endless good in the
world. No one can excuse himself from the
obligation of this charity, for without it he
can do nothing, or only what is trifling and
worthless. Let us only be careful to love,
and we are rich enough to be benefactors
of mankind. We have loving thoughts;
thoughts move the heart, and the heart the
hand. And what else is required for a good
work? We speak loving words. How much

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 141

good can they do! They remove misunder-
standings and banish mistrust. We have
loving looks; they scatter melancholy and
put temptations to flight, they cause courage
and joy and gladness makes this earth
a heaven. A kindly, cheerful man is a true
power for God in the world. He is an exor-
cist who drives the devil out of human hearts.
He is an apostle and evangelist, he preaches
God and by his charity and beneficence sets
the Saviour before men's eyes. If we but
earnestly desire true kindly affection and
charity towards men, the means will not be
wanting. ^ ' Charity never f alleth away, " Mt
is never at a loss and always knows how to
act. "We can never indeed do enough good
in our lives ; but in order to do good we need
courage and joy. And every work of charity
bears within it the blessing of consolation
and gladness, perpetual fresh joy in good
works, and finally the noble passion to be
always doing good, and that is the perfect
victory of good, the victory of God Himself
over the hearts of men.

1 1 Cor. ^iii, 8.

142 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER XVI

FAULTS OF CHAEACTER

1. By ^ ' cliaracter " we understand the in-
dividnality, distinction from others and pre-
dominant note in a man's natural disposition.
A fault of character, then, is a disorder, a
defect or an excess in the faculties of "the
soul and their relations to each other, which
is peculiar to a man and marks him out.

2. Everyone has more or less faults of
character. God alone, because of the sim-
plicity and eternity in all His divine attri-
butes, necessarily and by reason of His Na-
ture excludes every inequality. With Him
no attribute is greater or more perfect than
another. With the creature, and therefore
with man, it is not so ; he is ever limited and
unequal. In every man there is one spiritual
faculty or disposition more powerful than
the others which disturbs the harmonious
equipoise and the even movement of the
whole, and tends to mistakes in conduct.
That is his master passion.

3. Such a fault may arise from the very
disposition of the mind and soul, according
as the intellect, or the will, or the imagina-

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 143

tion and sentiment predominates, not to tlie
advantage, but the injury of the other facul-
ties and to the imprinting of itself on the
man's whole being. Thus we are divided
into intellectual men, independent, inflexible
men of strong will, imaginative, sentimental,
or sensual men. Again, the difference may
arise from the physical nature, that is from
the temperament, the state of a man's mind
which results from the union of the soul with
the body and the bodily constitution. So
we speak of the sanguine, the choleric, the
phlegmatic and the melancholy temperament,
each of which has its own drawbacks and
its own advantages.

4. In order to improve the character it is
first necessary to know it. Although every-
one suffers from some defect of character, it
is not always easy to discover it. There
stand in the way of self-knowledge inatten-
tion to ourselves, or vanity and self-decep-
tion. It is humiliating to be accused by con-
science of a fault, and so one evades its testi-
mony. There are also men who possess so
happy and even a character, that it is not
easy to perceive any conspicuous deficiency
in it. In such natures the characteristic
fault is usually fear, timidity, irresolution

144 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

either in abandoning or undertaking any-
thing.

Now this is what we can do in order to
discover our characteristic fault. First, let
us see which is strongest in us, understand-
ing, will, or feeling, and of what kind our
temperament is. Secondly, let us mark what
sins and faults we most often fall into.
They lead us inevitably to their common
root, and that common root is our character-
istic fault. Thirdly, let us consider what
virtues we possess; they too can put us
on the track of our special failing, because
every virtue has its corresponding fault, just
as every plant has its particular blight.
Fourthly, let us take note of the prevailing
humor of our soul. It indicates accurately
the tendency of our nature and character,
and enables us to perceive what gives us
pleasure and attracts us, what consoles us
if anything goes wrong and what are the
favorite thoughts which occupy our minds.
Other means of discovering our character-
istic fault are enlightenment from Grod in
prayer and the judgment of our director or
of those around us.

5. We must then combat our characteristic
fault with earnestness and perseverance.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 145

There are three special reasons why we
should do so.

First, because this fault is a defect and
malformation, not of our exterior, but, what
is of far more importance, a deformity of
the soul and of the beautiful image of God
within us. How carefully we remove the
least bodily disfigurement! How little we
care for a spiritual deformity !

Secondly, because the improvement of
character is of the highest importance in the
spiritual life. Our characteristic fault is the
most serious hindrance to our spiritual prog-
ress. It is not only a fault, but the source
of all other faults. All bear a family like-
ness to it. To fight against it is to fight
against all. To amend it is to amend all.
How often we hear men complain: ^'If I
only had not this unfortunate failing, all my
other faults would be bearable. '^ It is a
very tyrant among the little, and in the end
will even pose as a virtue. In the spiritual
life everything is possible by means of grace,
our co-operation, and merit. Now God gives
the most grace where it is most needed; but
where we need it most is in our fight against
the chief fault in our character. There we
may be certain we have God as our ally.

146 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Our characteristic fault is God's and our
most dangerous enemy. It deprives us of
grace and of the merit of our efforts. No
parasite can injure a plant as our chief fault
injures us. It is a universal maxim of theo-
logians that a good and happy character is
the most important among all the natural
means which God employs to lead souls to
their last end. This sign-post of Divine
Providence we must follow by resisting with
determination our characteristic fault. Even
here on earth victory secures for us the
prize of purity, clarity of vision and peace
of soul.

Who does not realize, in the third place,
of what supreme importance this combat is
in the fulfillment of our vocation! He who
has no mind to fight against this fault should
go into the desert and renounce every calling
that involves co-operation with men. At
least he would not then vex and injure other
people. But he who desires to live amongst
his fellows and to benefit them, let him strive
for a good and beautiful character. Every
fault of character limits our efficiency or alto-
gether destroys it. In order to be able to
help others, many virtues are necessary.
One fault can spoil all and make it impossi-

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE ^ 147

ble for us to do good. How much valuable
energy has been wasted upon unrestrained
anger, imprudence, and sensuality! These
make the grandest talents unproductive.

Earnest mortification must, then, be prac-
tised in this direction. We must fight if we
are to have any prospect or hope of victory,
and all depends on that hope. We have to
do with one single enemy in this battle, and
must concentrate all our strength at one
point. That is the right plan of campaign.
God will help us, because the conflict is in
His interests. How successfully the saints
have subdued this evil spirit of their charac-
teristic fault! Why should not wel It can
only be done by earnestness and persever-
ance. Nothing can withstand a good and
earnest will. Let us do what lies in our
power; we shall not change our character
essentially; but we can limit its excesses and
mend its defects.

We have time, we can will, we can fight,
we can pray. And that is enough.

148 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER XVII

SOME ADDITIONAL KEMAEKS

1. To what lias been said, the following
should be added : We must firmly resolve to
overcome ourselves, and be determined to
rely steadfastly on prayer as the very foun-
dation-stone of our spiritual life. This must
be our one fundamental principle. We must
hold it fast and follow it out as the one fixed
idea of our life in spite of all relapses. We
shall without doubt often fail; but that will
not be so disastrous, so long as we remain
true to our intention at bottom. The fail-
ures will always diminish, and at last the
principle will gloriously assert itself in our
life and master it.

2. To give up this principle is to renounce
all spiritual earnestness, all aim at perfec-
tion. Prayer alone will not attain the end.
To be willing to pray merely, without self-
denial, is an article of the modern sugar-and-
water creed. God and union with Him are
not to be found in prayer alone. It is a pity
that so much trouble should be spent on such
prayer. After years and long wanderings
through by-paths we shall still be where we

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 149

were when we set out. It is as necessary for
us to practise both prayer and self-denial
with fixed regularity, as it is to have two
wings in order to fly, or two hands if we are
to wash our hands. Both must help, sup-
port and supply one another. Both are
parts of one whole. Without mortification
of self there is no real prayer. It is a neces-
sity of prayer and even if one does pray
without it, one does not find God. The un-
mortified man seeks Grod in prayer and finds
Him not. God Himself seeks the mortified
man, because his heart is purified and fitted
for union with God, Who longs more than
we ourselves to impart Himself to us and
unite us to Himself. He seeks only a pure
and mortified heart. But it is just as true
that we cannot mortify ourselves without
prayer. Mortification is hard, and only
God's grace can make it possible and easy.
But that grace comes with and by prayer.
He who will be a prudent man, therefore,
and build his house on firm ground, must
build on the rock of prayer and self-denial.

3. Undoubtedly the command to mortify
ourselves is hard to obey, and the path of
self-denial difficult to tread. We men have
by sin made this path our only way, and now

150 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

we must travel along it, no matter how hard
it is. But let us not forget that the way of
sin and the yoke of inordinate passions is
not less hard, but far harder. We cannot
escape sin without self-denial. Our only
choice lies between self-denial and sin. The
way is really hard only because our resolu-
tion is so half-hearted. Let us make a whole-
hearted resolution and be confident. The
way will become easy and even pleasant in
time. Life comes from death and sweetness
from strength.^ The brier of mortification
does not bear thorns alone, but also roses of
joy and supernatural consolation. But the
consolation, like all that is beautiful and
great here below, is obtained by vigorous ef-
fort. Difficulty and trouble disappear in the
joy of heroic courage. This joy is the fair
side of the mortification that terrifies us.

4. There are plenty of objections raised
against mortification. It is said: ''In our
days it is no longer possible ; health and labor
do not allow it.'' Here we make a distinc-
tion. From interior mortification there is
no dispensation, and it neither injures health
nor interferes with labor. Of exterior mor-
tification it may be truly said that people

1 Judges xiv, 14.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 151

in these days would have perhaps better
health if they practised it a little more.
Labor is certainly itself a good mortification.
But in order to work well and wisely there
is need of mortification, otherwise one does
what is useless or what is merely agreeable,
and that is not work. You may object that
it is old-fashioned asceticism. But, so far
as we know, the world is the same as it al-
ways was. It has not changed, neither has
Christ changed, and the end of life and the
means to that end remain the same. There-
fore, old-fashioned mortification is as neces-
sary as ever. Again, it is said that interior
mortification is all very well, but not ex-
terior. The element of truth in this is that
interior mortification is the better and more
important of the two. But it does not fol-
low that exterior self-denial should be alto-
gether neglected. If there be no exterior
mortification, interior cannot continue. To
minimize and reject exterior mortification is
not according to the spirit of Christianity
and shows a total misapprehension of our
condition in consequence of the Fall. Half
our difficulties and sins are physical in origin.
From the Christian point of view our body
is not merely a power for evil which must be

152 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

held in check, but also yields the precious
myrrh of penance and satisfaction for our
sins and all the sins of the world, the price
and sacrifice for obtaining' special graces, en-
lightenment and merit for eternity. There-
fore innocent souls are the most zealous in
the practice of exterior mortification. An-
other mistaken notion often advanced is that
exterior mortification is suitable at first, but
not afterwards. We can no more escape
from the body and its effects upon the soul
than we can escape from our shadow.
Though self-denial is, indeed, part of the A,
B, C of the spiritual life, we can never afford
to forget it.

It is universally the case that self-morti-
fication is difficult to poor fallen man and
that vigorous and persistent effort is needed
in order to exercise it. And that is exactly
what we need in order to overcome evil and
to train ourselves to be strong for what is
good. The way is hard, the end great and
glorious. For a great end a generous man
willingly makes sacrifices. Therefore the
*' Following of Christ'' concludes the instruc-
tion on the Eoyal Way of the Cross with the
words: ''When we have read and searched
all, let this be the final conclusion, that

OF SPIKITUAL LIFE 153

through many tribulations we must enter
into the Kingdom of God. ' ' ^ But to endure
tribulation self-denial is necessary, well es-
tablished, all-embracing and continual self-
denial.

1 "Omnibus ergo perleetis et scrutatis sit haec eonclusio
finalis: Quoniam per miiltas tribulationes oportet nos in-
trare in regnum Dei." De Imit. Christi, Lib. II, Cap. 12.

11

THE THIRD FUNDAMENTAL PRINCI-
PLE: LOVE OF THE DIVINE
SAVIOUR

To pray and hold commimion with God is
sweet and delightful. To subdue and master
one's heart, in order to make it worthy of
communion with Him is sublime. But both
are hard for man under many circumstances.
Then comes love and makes all easy.

CHAPTER I

CHARITY

1. To turn the heart away from earth to
heaven, bravely to bear the cross and joy-
fully to make all sacrifices is without doubt
bitterly hard to poor human nature. It
would help us marvelously if we had some-
thing which would always attract and uplift
us by its strength and sweetness, which would
ever give us joy and by this gift of gladness
make amends for all the troubles of earth.
154

THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 155

2. This is precisely what love does. Love
is the attraction of the will to a good that
answers to our heart's desire, that satisfies
our longing for happiness, and by its posses-
sion fills us with peace and joy, which ever
follow in its train. Peace and joy are in-
deed the natural effects of the possession of
the longed-for good, and with them love con-
quers all things. Charity is the mightiest
power in heaven and on earth. God is char-
ity ; and there is no higher gift or intercourse
between God and man than charity.

3. But in order that charity may abide
with man and bless his every faculty, the
good which is the source of peace and joy
must be a real conception, an ideal of truth,
goodness and beauty. It must be a true and
actually existing idea, not merely a beautiful
possibility. It must on the one hand be high
above us, that it may exalt us above our-
selves, and on the other it must be like to us,
that we may be able to understand it, lay
hold of it, and closely approach it. It must,
besides, be abiding, unfading and eternally
enduring. If we survived it, it would be
something less than ourselves. It must,
finally, be a good without limit and without
end, that it may plentifully satisfy our need

156 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

of joy and susceptibility to love, which are
themselves without end or limit.

4. But where can we find this ideal on
earth, where all is so finite and evanescent?
We must climb up to heaven and bring it
down from thence. God knows our need of
happiness and love, and has inspired our
hearts with the desire for them. And there-
fore He has taken care for its satisfaction.
There is One Who stands on earth and yet
fills heaven. Who is at once God and Man,
Who possesses and bears the splendor of
both heaven and earth. All in heaven and
on earth lives by the Life of this Ideal, and
drinks rapture from the vision of His beauty.
Never through all eternity shall we sound
and comprehend His glory. To catch one
ray is benediction for all our life, reparation
for the loss of all earthly good, balm for all
earthly woe and foretaste of eternal blessed-
ness.

This One is our Lord Jesus Christ, God
blessed for ever.

We will now set forth traits from His
Image and His Life as motives of love to
Him. They will be enough to plant this love
in our hearts, to increase it and enable us to

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 157

acquire thereby a power that shall be the
support of our whole life.

CHAPTER II

CHKIST GOD

Only God perfectly satisfies man. If man
attaches himself to a creature in the belief
that he can thus find satisfaction, there re-
sults only a passing disturbance of mind and
heart. Bitter experience will teach him bet-
ter. How small and poor and miserable is
everything here below, marred by countless
shadows and wrinkles of imperfection!
How -soon everything comes to an end and
leaves unsatisfied our boundless longing for
love and happiness ! Only One Good, with-
out end or limit, only God can perfectly sat-
isfy us. It is the innate attraction of our
likeness to God and our relationship to Him,
and the instinct that we are His children,
that draws us to Him as our last End and
the Source of all happiness.

1. Let us rejoice, that with Christ we are
with God. He is very God, and our God.
This is not the place to prove this scien-
tifically. We are dealing with believing

158 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

hearts, who hold this truth and only desire
to possess somewhat of the treasures of
beauty and encouragement that lie in its
glorious depths.

2. St. John begins his Gospel: ^^In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.'' ^ From
all eternity, then, Christ knew Himself to be
God, the Possessor of true Divinity. He. is
Himself the Word, the Wisdom, the Son, the
Light, the Life and the Beauty in the God-
head. These are all names which He Him-
self and the Scripture give Him, and which
express inherent properties of His Person.
What ideas and conceptions do these names
awaken in our hearts 1 What is more loving
and kindly, what brings greater joy and
sweetness to the heart, than Wisdom, Beauty,
and Life? And all this He is essentially.
This He is in His Own Person as none other
can be.

3. ^'The same was in the beginning," con-
tinues St. John, and ^'all things were made
by Him. ' ' ^ As the Wisdom of the Father
He was the Book of Life, in Whom already
existed the pattern of all God's creation and
of His communications with His creatures in

iSt. John i, 1. 2i, 3,

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 159

their boundless abundance and manifold
beauty, and after this Pattern the Father
created all things. "Who can comprehend the
richness and the splendor of this creative
power? We were there as living images of
His goodness. There we lived and were be-
loved, and that in a special manner, because
He willed to create us, actually to realize
His thought of us, while so many others
whom He might make remain for ever in the
depths of merely possible creation. The Di-
vine Wisdom was therefore our first, origi-
nal, and eternal Home, the very source and
foundation of our being. How could we fail
to love Him f How could we forget Him f

The thought and wish often come to us:
* ^ 0 that I could see God ! How easy it would
then be to love Him!" We see something
of Him at least in nature, in His creation.
The world of science and of art, visible and
invisible creation, are only a reflection of
God, but they are truly a reflection of Him,
and a means by which the idea of God is built
up in us and we are led to love Him. Indeed
the earthly, visible creation is so beautiful
and noble that we must seize and hold our
heart with both hands in order not to lose
it to the creature. What then must God be?

160 THKEE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Other, indeed, than we can think, infinitely
greater and more beautifnl than we can pic-
ture to ourselves. He is the Author of all
things, and therefore every creature reflects
in its life and order, in its variety and beauty,
the image of the Son, and all things are visi-
ble expressions of His invisible glory. Can
we doubt that the Lord, the Author of beauty.
Who has made all this creation so incompa-
rably beautiful, must Himself be incom-
parably beautiful!^ How great, and glori-
ous, and worthy of love, must He be !

4. Christ is God. Christ Himself came to
bear witness to this truth, which is our glory
and our salvation. How often, in how many
ways, and how winningiy He expresses this
consciousness of His true Godhead! Thus,
on that night when He told His disciples so
tenderly of the great home in heaven and of
the Father's love, and St. Philip said to Him:
^'Show us the Father, and it is enough for
us,''^ He answered: ^^ Philip, he that seetli
Me, seeth the Father also ... do you
not believe that the Father is in Me and I in
HimT' ''I and the Father are one."^ ''I
am the Light of the world.'' ^ ^^I am the

1 Wisdom xiii, 3. 3 x, 30.

2 St. John xiv, 8, 9. * viii, 12; ix, 5

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 161

Way, the Truth, and the Life/' ^ ^^This is
eternal life, that they may know Jesus Christ
Thy Son, Whom Thou hast sent.'' ^ To con-
firm His word He wrought miracles in the
sjoiritual world by prophecy, and in the visi-
ble world by healing the sick and raising the
dead. He demanded faith in this testimony
to Himself: ''You believe in God (the Fa-
ther), believe also in Me,"^ and yet more
earnestly than faith He claimed love, such
love as only a God can claim. Else He can-
not be the God Who said, ''Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with thy whole heart" ^
and W^ho claims all the love the human heart
can give, and can therefore satisfy all its
need of love and happiness.

5. Moreover, He has been loved as God
should be loved. After His departure hence
He founded a Kingdom which embraces the
whole world and will never end, a Kingdom
in which He is adored and loved as God.
Since the days of the Apostles and first dis-
ciples of the Lord, this Kingdom has been
continually presenting to Him countless
souls that have renounced all the g^oods of
this earthly life, that have esteemed this life
as nothing, have crucified the whole world in

1 St. John xiv, 6. 3 St. John xiv, 1.

2 xvii, 3. 4 St. Luke x, 27.

162 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

their hearts and poured out all their power
of loving at their Lord's feet. And so will
it ever be. Every true Christian is ready,
by the sacrifice of his life and of all that is
dearest to him, to bear witness to the truth
of the Christian religion. Faith and love
have founded this Kingdom, and it will never
fail. This moral victory of Christ through
faith and love is a true testimony of His
Divinity. Many great men have given this
testimony, men who by their force of intel-
lect and strength of character have through-
out their lives attracted the attention of the
world to themselves. Many have endured
death on account of it. But who for the sake
of a man has changed his life and renounced
his most cherished desires 1 The mighty are
passed away, their work is in the dust, and
no hand is lifted in their behalf. It must
then be a Power essentially different which
still energizes in the world on behalf of
Christ Who has left the world, works in men,
and draws their hearts to Him in faith and
love. It is the Power of His Godhead, mani-
fested in victory and splendor on this side
and beyond the grave.
6. Christ, in Whom we believe, in Whom

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 163

we hope and Whom we love, is God. All that
our heart longs for so passionately and un-
ceasingly we have in Him. He is not merely
the first, the highest, mightiest and most
beautiful of all created bemgs, He is God,
therefore infinitely beyond all creatures put
together. We may not merely wonder, take
courage, and love; we must also adore. In
Christ we have our ultimate Aim and End.
There is no truth, or goodness, or beauty that
we can seek beyond Him. In Him we can ab-
solutely rest. In Him there is no opposition
between God's service and the service of man,
between the Divine glory and our good. His
service is the service of God, and at the same
time our own salvation and blessing. Neither
time nor death, the merciless robber of all
earthly things, can deprive us of the Object of
our love. There will never be a time when
weariness or satiety can trouble or destroy
the enjoyment of that love and happiness.
We creatures are all of us poor and ill-sup-
plied founts of joy; we exhaust each other
and are still unrefreshed. Disloyalty or
death soon ends all things here below. But
with God, the more we seek the more we find
in Him endless peace and love and joy. In

164 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

this sense too St. John's words are true:
''God is greater than our heart/' ^ ^'Your
joy no man shall take from you. " ^ * ' He that
believeth in the Son hath life everlasting. ' ' ^
But really to live is to know, to love and to
be happy, as St. Augustine so beautifully
writes: "Vocabimus et videbimus, videbi-
mus et amabimus, amabimus et laudabimus.
Ecce quod erit in fine sine fine. " ^ " We shall
keep festival and shall behold, we shall behold
and love, we shall love and praise. Behold
what shall be at the end, without end.''

The first condition of love, then, that its ob-
ject must be above us and must last for ever,
is absolutely fulfilled in the Divinity of our
Lord. What thanks we owe to the heavenly
Father for giving us His Own Son and with
Him all — Himself and the Holy Spirit ! We
have no need to beg for love and happiness
from creatures; in Christ the Son of Grod
we have all we can long for. To reverse the
words of the Apostle,^ we may say: "Father,
show us the Son, and it is enough for us."

II St. John iii, 20.

2 St. John xvi, 22.

3 St. John iii, 36.

4De Civit. Dei, Lib. xxii. Cap. 30
5 St. John xiv, 8.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 165

CHAPTEE III

GOD-MAIT

Man^s first need and happiness is God,
his second is his fellow-man. Therefore,
God has drawn near to man as man in Christ,
that He may win man's love. By His Nature
God is invisible and a pure Spirit. That man
may rightly know and understand Him, He
must appear in visible form. Now if God
creates an image of Himself, how beautiful
and worthy of love must it be! And God
has done this: He has created an image of
Himself in the Sacred Humanity of Christ.
He is God and Man, and has appeared to
us in all human loving kindness and winning
beauty.^

1. The Son of God has become Man and
without surrendering His Divinity has truly
assumed our human nature, endowed with a
body and a soul, with understanding, will,
imagination and sensibility, like ourselves.
This union, however, in no way changed
human nature; it but exalted that nature to
all dignity, even to the Divine glory, and in-
vested all the natural faculties with a per-

1 Titus iii, 4.

166 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

fection that they had never enjoyed before.
His magnificent intellect mastered the whole
kingdom of truth, both natural and super-
natural; His will was endowed with innate
purity, sanctity and a fullness of power that
knew no bounds in heaven or on earth; His
body, perfect in its absolute beauty and deli-
cacy, was the instrument of Divine wonders.
In every way was the God-Man the master-
work of creation, and the revelation of God
to His creatures.

2. The way in which the Son of God as-
sumed this nature of ours was the tenderest
and most loving that we could imagine. In
the first place He assumed it, not as Adam
had received it, straight from the hand of
God, but from our very flesh and blood. He
willed to have human ancestry up to our first
parent. He willed in all things to be man
like ourselves. He had a Mother, a family,
a fatherland, a nationality, an appointed re-
ligion and even a human name. In every-
thing except sin He willed to be like us. He
is in very truth our blood, our Brother ac-
cording to the flesh. Moreover, He did not
take upon Him our nature in that condition
of immortality and freedom from suffering
which Adam originally possessed, but as it

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 167

has become through sin, subject to suffering
and to death; and to sufferings, not merely
such as come to men in general, whether in
body or soul, but in such measure as the
Lord Himself appointed and expressed in
His life. According to one well-grounded
opinion of theologians, God laid before the
Saviour, in the first moment of His life, all
the ways by which He could redeem us, pro-
posing them to His free-will. And He
chose, as beseemed the Son of God, with
absolute freedom all the circumstances of
His life and His redeeming suiferings. The
conditions of His Incarnation expressed His
choice.^ We know to what point He re-
nounced temporal honor and joy, in how un-
limited a measure He imposed on Himself
poverty, toil, humiliation and sutfering. By
this choice He stamped His whole life with
the sign and seal of sacrifice. Truly He
emptied Himself and took on Himself the
form of a servant.^

3. And why did He choose thus! Simply
and entirely for love of us. God's honor and
the satisfaction for our sins would have been
accomplished by the least work of the God-
Man. All that He did and suffered was of in-

iCf. Heb. X, 5; xii, 2. 2 PMl. jj^ 7.

168 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

finite value and sufficed for all. It was not
His own advantage, gain or glory that was
thus increased. His essential glory was His
from tlie first moment in full measure and
could not be increased. With regard to His
accidental glory, which consists in the honor
and love we render Him, He was worthy that
we should love Him above all things and do all
for Him, and He bestowed grace in overflow-
ing measure to make this possible for us.
It was, in fine, nothing but His love for us
that made this choice possible to Him. He
willed to have no advantage in His life be-
yond us His brethren and to be like us in
all things. He willed that we should, in all
earthly sufferings, have in Him a pattern,
a true companion and consoler, and that
through His grace enabling us we should gain
eternal merit for our labor and suffering.
"What unselfish, noble and true love! Al-
ready (when He became incarnate) He loved
us and gave Himself for us.^

4. And what blessings and benefits His
assumption of our nature has procured for
us ! First, honor and dignity to all our race.
By the espousals of the Son of God with our
nature we are all exalted, ennobled, as it were

1 Gal. ii, 20.

OF SPmiTUAL LIFE 169

deified, and brought into blood-relationship
with God. Each one of us is by nature God's
child. Even in the sight of the angels w©
are become worthy of honor. Through Christ
our nature is raised above all the angelic
orders. He is their Lord, but not their
Brother. He sits, true man, upon the throne
of God, and is adored by them. Secondly,
how marvelously He has enriched us. He is
the Head of mankind, and as such shares
His possessions with His members, so that
human nature partakes of all His riches.
The supernatural life, grace and glory, all
the merits of Jesus, are ours, and we possess
them as our own, and as a fountain of bless-
ing within us. We have a right to them, if
we are joined to Christ in faith and charity.
Even in the sight of God we are rich through-
Christ. Through Him we can offer fitting
adoration, thanksgiving, and satisfaction,
and thus satisfy all the claims of God. Sweet
consolation and complete confidence is the
third blessing that the truth of Christ's
Sacred Manhood brings us. He is God in-
deed, but also true Man, with all that belongs
to humanity, sin alone excepted. "What He is
more than we. He is simply by His own divine
grace and condescension. He knew that well,

12

170 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

and therefore He was and is so humble, good
and condescending towards ns in spite of onr
weakness and our poverty. He was Him-
self tried by all the sorrows of human life,
that He might be a merciful High Priest/
Nothing can come between Him and us, no
dread, no sense of distance and separation.
He is no strange gigantic being, whom we
can only fear and wonder at, but One like
us, our Kinsman, one of ourselves. Whom we
can love and embrace with utter confidence.
Yes, as men, as His brethren, be we never so
poor and sinful, we can be sure of the indi-
vidual and boundless love of His Sacred
Heart.

All this the Son of God is become to us
through the Incarnation. The Incarnate
is God-made-Man, this great and marvelous
One, Whom the Scripture calls the Author
of Creation, the First-born of every creature,^
the Heir of all things ; ^ God-made-Man, the
mighty One before Whom all knees bow in
heaven, on earth and under the earth ; ^ God-
made-Man, the all-lovely and all-lovable, the
very flower, as it were, of all the thoughts of
God; God-made-Man, the sweet Charity and
Marvel of heaven; God-made-Man, the Life

iHeb. V, 2.

3 Heb. i, 2.

2 Col. i, 15, 16, 19

4 Phil, ii, 1

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 171

and Consolation of this poor earth; Jesns,
Who has made Himself our Brother, and
Who, embracing ns with the arms of His love,
lifts ns np to the Father in the eternal home
as the sweet conquest of His loving kindness
and of the merit of His charity. What can
God do more for a heart that is not touched
by the glory and the loveliness of our Ee-
deemer?

CHAPTEE IV

GOD A CHILD

1. God became Man in the fullest sense of
the word, therefore He became a Child.
Childhood belongs essentially to mankind and
human life — childhood in its widest sense, in-
cluding youth, as the time of unfolding from
the very beginning of life to the attainment
of perfect manhood. In this lies the first dif-
ference between the first and the Second
Adam. The first knew no childhood or youth.
As a perfect man he stands suddenly in the
world before his appointed task. The Second
Adam willed to experience the full measure
of man's wonted life, and, so to speak, to serve
from the very beginning upwards. Child-
hood as part of the Life of Jesus is, there-
fore, a necessary result of the fact of the In-

172 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PEINCIPLES

carnation, and of His divine resolve to make
His Life in all things conformable to ours.

2. Now, what is the most prominent trait
of this first manifestation of Jesus amongst
us men? The Apostle expresses it com-
pletely when he says, '^The goodness and
kindness of God our Saviour appeared. ' ' ^
Loving kindness and lovableness are, then,
the characteristic of His first appearance in
this world. With these in view He fixed the
conditions of His manifestation.

What is, in fact, more lovable than a
child! Man is the aristocracy of the visible
creation, and the child is the flower of hu-
manity. Who can behold the fresh, tender
beauty, the lovely unfolding mind, the charm
of unspoilt goodness and innocence, in a
child and not be moved, and not love the little
one? Who can resist a child when he ap-
peals to us with confidence and begs us to
help him? Now by such a divine artifice the
Son of God begs for our love in His first
manifestation of Himself.

All God's revelations are gracious conde-
scensions to us : this is the greatest and most
appealing.^ It is so great, that we appear
to be wiser and stronger than this Child, that

1 Titus iii, 4. 2 Heb. i, 1, 2.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 173

we can offer our s^Tiipatliy to God Himself,
poor and forsaken in this world of His. He
casts down all the barriers of His greatness
that separate ns from Him. Behold, God is
become as one of onrselves, seemingly even
less than we. *^A Child is born to ns, a Son
is given to ns.''^ Onr mighty God has be-
come Man, a poor forsaken Child, wrapped
in swaddling-clothes, and lying in the manger
— that is the sign that onr God has come.^
Trnly and beantifnlly St. Bernard says :
*' Great is the Lord, and worthy of infinite
praise, little is the Lord, and worthy of infinite
love.'' So is it with all His Childhood and
Yonth. How lovable, that the Almighty
should suffer Himself to be cared for, nour-
ished, and defended from His enemy by an
earthly Mother and foster-father; how lov-
able the wonderful mystery of His growth and
progress, as His body becomes ever more
beautiful and noble, as His soul reveals itself
ever more gloriously, as it ever pours itself
forth in more perfect works; how lovable
the humility, the obedience, the piety, the in-
dustry, all the virtues of that domestic life,
the sight of which rejoices heaven and earth,
so that memories of Nazareth arouse in us a

1 Isaias ix, 6. 2 St. Luke iij 12.

174 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

sweet envy of the Mother who is so happy as
to have such a Child ! How lovable the mys-
terious tarrying behind and the appearance
in the Temple, that premonitory glimpse of
His public life, when He will reveal Himself
as Messias and as God, but in poverty and
homelessness, in flesh and blood! He can-
not, as it were, delay to tell us that He be-
longs (in a sense) even more to us than to
His Mother, and looks forward with longing
to the hour when He shall be wholly ours.
Even the crib, with its silence and its pov-
erty, is a deeply significant sign of future
things, which He wills to accomplish for our
sake. Now the Mother wraps him in swad-
dling-clothes, one day she will wrap Him in
the linen of the Sepulchre; now He sheds
tears, then He will pour out His Blood; now
He accepts another's crib, then another's
grave.

3. The environment of place and people
that framed the childhood of Jesus makes
us yet more vividly sensible of his lovable-
ness. The places of His manifestation are
the small but royal town of Bethlehem, high
up on the green hills that look down on un-
dulating pastures, full of delightful memo-
ries of old days; then the wonderful land of

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 175

the Pliaraos with its pyramids, in whose
shadow the sons of Jacob were trained in
religion, art and sutfering, and grew to be
a mighty people; then qniet Nazareth, for
the longest period the home of His youth
and the scene of His innocent labor and
hidden life; finally the venerable sanctuary
of the Temple in Jerusalem, the ancient place
of revelation, where He will one day glori-
ously manifest Himself and where He now,
at the age of twelve, shows his loyal rever-
ence for the almost supers titiously venerated
doctors of the Law. All these are places of
the highest significance, and in most intimate
relation with the work He came to do. In
the same way the people that surrounded
Him are full of both charm and significance,
Mary, the royal Virgin-Mother, the true-
hearted, saintly Foster-father, the simple,
pious shepherds, the jubilant messengers of
heaven, holy Simeon and Anna, and the noble,
loyal Kings with their guiding star. There
are the Saints of the Childhood of Jesus, His
first adorers and prophets, who proclaim His
advent to the whole world and testify that
Lie is God indeed. On that truth all our
hope rests. Without it what would His pov-
erty and His lovableness profit us? He did

176 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

not break the silence of His Cliildhood and
declare His Divinity. He will do that later
on. Now He sends these saints npon this
business. They belong essentially to His
childhood, and for us they perform the in-
finitely valuable service of bearing witness
to His Godhead.

4. It is a beautiful world, this world of
our Lord's childhood. It is the Divine
Child Who lies in the crib. Who suffers
Himself to be cared for and nourished,
Who weeps and flees before His deadly
enemy, Wlio works in secret and by lowly
toil earns His bread. But there is no word
of interior weakness or unconsciousness.
On the contrary, there is strength and life
that embrace the world, divine life in the
form of the most sublime loving-kindness and
intimate charity, that draws all to itself with
irresistible might. What has this Childhood
wrought! What has it drawn to itself! All
things, the whole world, even ourselves. It
was our first devotion, Bethlehem our first
spiritual home. Let us think of it. With
what confidence we can there pour out our
prayers and our love! Perhaps nowhere
better. Why should we not go back to our
first youthful love! The Saviour, whether

OF SPIRITUAL LIFT 177

in the crib, on the cross, on the altar, or
upon His throne in heaven, is ever the same,
ever worthy of our adoration, our reverence
and our love. All devotions to the Humanity
of Jesus are ways that lead to God. There-
fore great saints, men whose intellect and
force have renewed the world, such as a
Francis of Assisi or a Bernard, have chosen
the devotion to the Childhood of Jesus as
their favorite. Where shall we find more
truth, more wisdom, more lovable might and
more winning beauty, more of the beatitude
and confidence of love, than beside the little
Child of Bethlehem? Confident love is the
ritual of the devotion to the Child Jesus.
Why cannot it be the ritual of our life?

CHAPTER V

THE WISEST TEACHER AND GUIDE OF SOULS

1. His youth completed, the Divine Saviour
began His public work. It consisted chiefly
in teaching. He had been foretold as
Prophet and Teacher, and His teaching was
an essential part of His work of redemption.
Without faith we cannot live aright nor be
happy. We must have a teacher, and we

178 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

possess him in our Saviour, the best and the
wisest of all teachers.

2. He had all the qualifications of a teacher.
The first one necessary is authority. Teach-
ing and education are a kind of creative art;
only God, and he to whom God imparts the
right, can rightly exercise it. Our Saviour
had not His authority to teach from men, but
from and in Himself, because He was God.
The office of teacher was, so to speak, innate
in Him, like the regal and sacerdotal office.
So too with regard to the second essential
qualification— Knowledge. He is God, the
Truth and Only-Begotten Son in the bosom
of the Father, the Wisdom of the Father, the
Divine Witness to all the mysteries of heaven
and of the human heart. How often when
He is teaching He makes use of this divine
knowledge of men's souls! The third quali-
fication of His teaching was power, which
lay first in the holiness of His life. His life
was His doctrine; secondly, in the power of
miracles by which He confirmed His word
beyond dispute, and finally in the grace that
He bestows, by which He moves hearts and
makes His commandments easy and delight-
ful to fulfill. Thus He taught indeed as One
with power and as none other ever taught.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 179

3. And what did He teach? First of all,
what God willed and what was necessary and
helpful to us. He taught us to know God as
our Father and our last and beatific End.
He taught us to pray, to be humble, to deny
ourselves and patiently and joyfully to bear
our cross; He taught us to love God above
all things, with our whole heart, and our
neighbors as ourselves. That is the content
of His Teaching. We can apply it here on
earth. It is enough to make us happy. He
dispensed His instruction freely and gen-
erously. He could have told us infinitely
more; but that we might have the merit of
faith. He reserved His further teaching until
we shall have reached heaven. There He
will impart all to us and that without danger
on our part of pride in the knowledge. Our
Lord imparts knowledge, but yet more He
teaches wisdom, and in faith lies the deepest
wisdom.

4. His manner of teaching is, first, clear
and simple, so that the humblest man, so that
every child, can understand, and at the same
time it is so sublime and so profound that the
mightiest intellect cannot sound the depths
of His doctrine. Secondly, He teaches with
wise moderation and prudent reserve. He

180 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PEINCIPLES

does not say all to all, and never chooses an
unpropitious time.^ He never over-bnrdens
the understanding and will of men. What
they can bear He demands of them. The
desire of the rich young man for his soul's
salvation and greater perfection our Lord
follows, step by step, by the simple exhorta-
tion to keep the commandments, and next by
pointing out to him the counsels.^ He tells
the Apostles that they cannot bear the whole
truth as yet, but that they shall know it later.^
How prudently and cautiously He reveals the
truth of His redemption of the world by His
death and the mystery of His Divinity!.
Finally, the Saviour teaches with unutter-
able patience. Unweariedly He scatters the
golden seed of His doctrine in men's hearts.
Many a grain He sees fallen by the way-side,
or among the thorns, or carried away by the
birds, and the growth of even the best is slow.
But He never ceases. At His first Pasch
the seed of faith fell into the heart of Nico-
demus ; it was at His fourth Pasch, when He
had died upon the Cross, that the seed sprang
up. How long He wrought at the training
of the Apostles, until at last they were what

1 St. Mark iv, 33 ; St. Luke v, 36ff.

2 St. Matth. xix, 16ff.

3 St. John xvi, 12.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 181

He willed them to be! His patience would
be gloriously crowned at last, not merely in
their individual souls, but amongst all man-
kind. Judea, that stony field, did not re-
ceive the divine seed of the word, but the
Holy Ghost, and the Apostles bore it forth to
the heathen, and there created the Christian
world. Christian science and civilization,
Christian law and Christian art. And still
our Saviour's preaching continues its effect-
ual work, converts souls, gives wisdom to the
simple, enlightens the eyes of the weak-
sighted and the blind, and rejoices hearts by
its consolation and its beauty.^

5. We need truth, light, and grace; we
need a teacher. "Where can we find one like
our Lord? He is our God; as He created
us, so he must develop us. He is Lord of
our conscience, He knows our weaknesses and
our capabilities. He knows how to make us
abundantly happy. He has patience to bear
with our fickleness and disloyalty. He has
grace powerful enough to crown His work
ail-gloriously. Let us seek Him with Nico-
demus, with John and Peter, Andrew and
Nathaniel. All recognized in Him the wise
and heaven-sent Teacher, the Lord of their

^ Psalm xviii, 8, 12.

182 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

conscience, life, and happiness. ^^Eabbi,
where dwellest ThonT' they asked. They
followed Him and became His disciples.^
Let US seek Him by reading and meditating
on His holy Gospel. How rich a reward is
gathered by sitting at the feet of Eternal
Wisdom, and listening to Plis word! If, as.
the Gospel relates, God Himself comes to the
children of men, and expoimds to them His
mild and heart-rejoicing law, and speaks to
them in language, so beautiful, yet so human,
of the mysteries of heaven, then these are
facts of eternal importance, of a heavenly
drama worthy of our constant contemplation
and filling us with wonder and love towards
the Divine Mind, the wisest of all hearts,
from Whom this teaching springs. There
we find indeed the wisest Teacher and Guide
of our souls. There Jesus is truly our Guide
to salvation, to wisdom, to justice in God's
sight.^ ^^Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of Eternal life."^ Those
were the words of faith and love with which
Peter overcame the peril of an instant that
was big with fate. The victory was the re-
sult of happy hours spent at the Master's
feet, hearing Him and learning His lessons.

1 St. John i, 37ff. 3 St. John vi, 69.

2 I Cor. i, 30.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 183

''Eabboni'' — ''Good Master" — was the word
with which Magxlalen, the disciple of Jesus,
greeted Him at His first appearance after
His resurrection.^ She speaks but one word,
but it includes all she knows and feels and is.
The relation of the disciple to the teacher
and guide is the most beautiful, noble, tender,
and touching. It is the relation of honor,
gratitude, and loving obedience.

CHAPTEE VI

THE SON OF MAN

The title, ''Son of Man,'' under which the
Prophets foretold the Saviour,^ and which
He repeatedly applied to Himself,^ will here
be taken not in the sense of "Messias,'' "Son
of God," or Head of the whole human race,
but in that of Possessor of our nature in the
noblest and most complete sense. Our Lord
is the expression and the perfect image of
the most lovable humanity. This lovable-
ness includes three things.

1. Our Saviour lived in every respect a
simple, ordinary human life. It was quite

iSt. John XX, 16.

2 Dan. vii, 13.

SE. g. St. Matth. xi, 19; xiii, 37, 41; xxv, 31; xxvi, 64.

184 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

otlierwise with Jolin the Baptist, His Prophet
and Forerunner, whose life was extraordi-
narily severe, who wore rough clothing and
lived in the desert. He never approached
the abodes of men. From the wilderness
sounded forth his mighty voice and drew the
people out to himself. Not so our Saviour.
He ever dwelt and lived amongst men, as a
member of a family and community, in con-
stant and active intercourse with the world.
Therefore He submits Himself to all the
ordinary external conditions to which man's
life is subject. The first is religion. He,
the Divine Wisdom, the Author of all true
adoration, lays upon Himself the obligation
of an appointed religion. As a God-fearing
Israelite He fulfills every obligation towards
God in His visits to the Temple and the syna-
gogue. Pie even undertakes religious ob-
servances which are of a temporary charac-
ter and not of obligation, and goes on a
pilgrimage with the multitude to see John,
whom He suffers to baptize Him. The sec-
ond condition is obedience to superiors, the
bond of all social life. Our Saviour fulfilled
this in His family, in His life as a citizen,
towards those in authority, both native and
foreign. All made their demands upon Him,

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 185

and He satisfied all as if He were the most
ordinary man of the people. He even willed
that this subjection of His should be made
especially prominent in the Gospel history.^
When tried for His life, the only charge
against which He defended Himself was that
of opposition to authority.^ The third con-
dition of ordinary life is labor. He labored
continually. He spent the greater part of
His life in uneventful, common work. With
His own hands He willed to earn His bread.
The highest-born among the sons of Adam
is the truest comrade of laboring humanity.
Not only in the severity and toil of our
life did our Saviour take part, but also in
all legitimate and customary festivities. At
the beginning of His public life He appeared
as guest and companion at a wedding-feast,
and the dilemma of the marriage party
touched Him so deeply that He wrought His
first miracle, the changing of the water into
wine, simply to crown a family feast. It
seems to have been the custom, in Palestine,
to offer hospitality to traveling teachers of
the Law, after they had delivered their in-,
struction. Our Lord, in order not to violate
this custom, did not refuse such invitations,

1 St. Luke ii, 51. 2 St. John xviii, 37.

13

186 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

altliougli He Imew that they were given to
Him from no sentiment of friendship, and
they only caused Him painful embarrass-
ments and unpleasant discussions.^ He had
to listen to the reproach of being a glutton
and wine-drinker.^ Even in His glorified
life after His Eesurrection, He willed, as
good men do, to celebrate by a repast His
departure from His loved disciples.^

In order to maintain the symmetry of a
regular and customary life, our Saviour even
suppressed the external manifestation of His
personal qualities. He concealed the charm
and beauty of His youth in the obscurity of
a workshop and a little mountain village.
Who suspected His power, His wisdom and
holiness? Even in the village He made His
home He could have used His higher knowl-
edge, as in many other ways, so especially
for the salvation of souls. But He did not
do so. He only revealed so much of His
sanctity as expressed the character of a pious
child and youth. So completely did He hide
all that was supernatural that Nathanael,
who lived within a few miles of Nazareth,
had heard no report of Him.^ The years in
Nazareth are therefore rightly termed the

1 St. Luke vii, 36; xiv, 1. s Acts i, 4.

2 St. Matth. xi, 19. * St. John i, 40.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 187

Hidden Life. Even in His public career,
when the country rang with His fame and
renown, He revealed only so much of His
wisdom, power and holiness as was neces-
sary for His mission. Infinitely more was
that which He withheld from human knowl-
edge. He, indeed, made Himself like to us
to give us an example of humility, but yet
far more in order to win our love by His
lovable care to appear no more than our-
selves. Likeness is always the foundation
and the condition of love.

2. The second trait that marks the beauti-
ful character of the Son of Man is consid-
erate, careful and loving attention to all
that surrounded Him and came before Him.
The second time He multiplied the loaves, it
did not escape Him that many of the x)eople
had come from far away and were faint with
hunger and exhaustion. His compassion
was moved, and Lie commanded the Apostles
to feed the multitude.^ As He met the fun-
eral procession at Naim, Llis Heart was filled
with lively sympathy for the grief and deso-
lation of the poor widowed mother, whose
only son was being carried to the grave, and
He offered His unsought help. In the midst

1 St. Mark viii, 2ff.

188 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

of the sacred jubilation and joy of His second
Pasch, He did not forget the poor sick in the
porches of Bethsaida. He sought them out,
consoled them and healed the poorest of
them all. What is less than a piece of
bread! Yet He has given it a place in the
Our Father, and when He multiplied the
loaves He bade His disciples gather up the
fragments that remained. At His first
cleansing of the Temple He overthrew the
money-changers' tables, but He had pity on
the poor doves, and ordered them to be car-
ried away in their cages. ^ How courteously
and kindly He deals with the father of the
dumb possessed boy and with the child him-
self, whom the Apostles, unable to heal, would
have turned away! The thought of the ter-
rible fate of Jerusalem moves Him to tears
in the midst of His triumph, just when He
is celebrating the day most full of honor in
His whole life and when all about Him are
rejoicing. In the depths of the grief and
agony of His mortal conflict on the Cross
Pie hears the penitent sigh of the thief, thinks
of His Mother and tenderly provides for her-
Inconsiderateness and forgetfulness always
hinder far-sightedness and charity and can

1 St. John ii, 15, 16.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 189

inflict grievous wounds. He who is ever con-
siderate has assuredly a good and wise heart,
and deserves our love and confidence. And
such was our loving Saviour.

3. Gratitude is the third quality of a gen-
erous-hearted man. How brightly this char-
acteristic shines in the life of our Divine
Lord! He rewards, royally and divinely,
every evidence of love and service. How
gloriously Peter is rewarded for placing his
boat for an hour at our Lord's command,
that He may preach thence to the crowd.
Peter's recompense is the miraculous
draught of fishes and the call to be a fisher
of men. In return for the Apostle's prompt
confession of Christ's Divinity our Lord cre-
ates him Pope. Nicodemus receives, for the
slight effort of a visit by night, the grace of
faith. For the few steps Zacheus takes to
meet the Lord, Christ invites Himself to be
his Guest, and fills his house with extraordi-
nary graces. According to the legend, Ver-
onica gives our Saviour her veil as He goes
along the Way of the Cross, and gives to
the soldiers the wine mingled with myrrh for
the terrible moment of the crucifixioUo He
hands back the veil, and His Sacred Face has
miraculously imprinted Itself on the soft

190 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

texture. Of the mingled wine and myrrh He
partakes, though but a single drop, for the
sake of the merciful soul that prepared the
draught, to give her joy and express His
gratitude. John receives the Mother of
Jesus herself — how precious a legacy! — for
his tender service of love in having accom-
panied her to the Cross! He recompenses
the noble and courageous love of the weeping
women with words of most touching sym-
pathy. He rewards the service of Mary
Magdalen with imperishable remembrance in
His Church.^ Finally, is not Lazarus, whom
He raised from the dead, a shining proof of
the great and extraordinary reward the
friendship of Jesus brings?

4. We see how truly human and lovable
our great God makes Himself, how He mani-
fests His splendor to us in the winning form
of a pure and noble humanity, and how He
walks with us along the way of ordinary hu-
man life. His life is the glorification of ours.
Thus He blesses us in our littleness. We feel
He is near us. It is as though He desired
to lessen on our account the unapproachable
majesty of His Eternal Godhead. He might
have overwhelmed us by the revelation of

1 St. Matth. xxvi, 13.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 191

His glory and His awfulness, and instead He
draws us to Himself by the manifestation
of the most lovable hmnanity. It is not
merely condescension, it is love, the loving-
kindness of the Eternal Wisdom to our race,
of which it is written: ^'He found out all
the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob
His servant, and to Israel, His beloved.
Afterwards He was seen upon earth, and con-
versed with men. ' ' ^

CHAPTER VII

THE SUPERNATUEAL

Our Saviour is Man in the truest and
highest sense. But He is infinitely more
than what the nature He took of us bestowed
upon Him. He is in the most sublime degree
supernatural, because He is at the same time
God. His miracles prove this in a striking
manner. Now these miracles are a mighty
appeal to our hearts, and that in a threefold
manner, according as they relate to faith,
love and confidence.

1. Our Lord worked innumerable miracles
in the invisible order of spirit and truth by

iBaruch iii, 37, 38.

192 THEEE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

prophecy, and in the order of the visible
world, by mighty works of every kind. Our
Lord's intention in working these miracles
was, as He agaui and again explained/ to
establish His teaching, the truths of His di-
vine mission and of His Godhead, that we
might believe. Faith is the first and most
necessary condition of salvation, and to cre-
ate faith miracles are the simplest and short-
est, and for many the only, means. Where
a true miracle appears among the credentials
of a teacher, there is God giving His witness,
and that which God testifies to is infallible
truth. Now since our Saviour appeals so
often and so solemnly to His miracles as
proof of His doctrine and mission, it follows
that the whole edifice of our faith rests on
the fact of the miracles of Jesus as its basis.
Of what intense importance they are to us,
then, and what thanks we owe Him for them !
It is also surprising and beautiful to note
how strikingly His miracles correspond with
His teaching. He said: ^^I am the Light
of the world,'' and He made a blind man see;
He affirmed Himself to be the Resurrection
and the Life, and He raised to life one who
was dead; He called Himself the Bread of

1 St. John V, 36 j x, 25; xi, 42.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 193

Life, and multiplied the loaves; He proved
that He could loose the chains of sin by the
healing of the paralytic. Many of His mira-
cles are figures and prophecies of future
mysteries in His Church. Thus the healing
of the dumb, blind, and deaf prefigures the
effects of Baptism, the miracles of healing
the lepers and raising the dead are types of
the sacrament of penance, the multiplication
of the loaves, of the Eucharist and Peter's
boat, the figure of the Church. His miracles,
then, are really explanations of His teaching,
His work, and His Person. This beautiful
interior connection between His doctrine and
His wonderful works enlightens our faith and
raises it to Him Whom miracles and teaching
so wise, so mighty, and so concerned with our
salvation, manifest to us.

2. But the miracles of Jesus also demand
our love, because they are altogether the acts
of His goodness, not of His awful power.
He came to redeem us. But His redemption
consists in our liberation from the power of
Satan, who with sin had brought temporal
evil, sickness and death into the world. In
this gloomy realm our Saviour's power now
operates, and punishment, curse, sickness,
death and possession flee before it. His

194 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

miracles, so supernatural and divine, all bear
the character of loving-kindness and good-
ness. All are deeds of the purest love to
man, and are therefore so many demands on
our hearts and on our love.

And this very characteristic of His mira-
cles— their lovableness — works back again
to faith; because the object of faith is truths
which our understanding cannot compre-
hend, the will has an essential part to
play in our acceptance of truth. But the will
is powerfully stirred by the benefits which
are bestowed upon men by miracles. We
willingly believe those of whose love we are
convinced. So the loving-kindness of our
Lord works with His miracles even in the
domain of faith, and through faith and love
wins the hearts of men.

3. Finally, the miracles of eJesus inspire
our confidence. As such they are always
proofs of a divine, infinite power. How
magnificently they unveil that power! In
every order, in the domain of rational
and irrational creation, in the world of spirits
and of men, towards the dead and with re-
gard to evil spirits. His might shone forth
victoriously, manifesting Him as the Lord
of all creatures, boundless and almighty.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 195

There is no suffering, no sorrow which He
cannot exorcise. Even the gates of eternity
stand open to Him. Everywhere, in every
need, in every trouble, the human soul can
look up to the Saviour and say to Him:
^'Thou canst help me, Thou canst heal me,
if Thou wilt.' ^

This appears with wonderful beauty in the
raising of the young man at Naim. He was
already being carried to the grave; his dis-
consolate mother was following his bier.
How many friends had, time after time, bade
her ^^Weep not!" That was all the conso-
lation they could offer her. But when the
Lord says so, all is different.^ With one
word He awakens the dead youth and re-
stores him to his mother. And as He stands
before the grave of His friend Lazarus, while
his sisters and friends and a vast multitude
prostrate themselves weeping before Him
and pray to Him, as the One Helper and
Saviour in time of need, they look up and,
behold, He too is weeping in Llis divine sym-
pathy. But He has infinitely more than
tears of love and s^nnpathy for His friend.
He raises him with a word. He restores him
to the arms of his sisters and friends, and

1 St. Luke vii, 13.

196 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

thus heals all their sorrow. Such is the con-
solation the Saviour gives, and which He
alone can give. A miracle is nothing to Him.
His power and His love extend to all. That
love is all-wise, that power almighty, and
both are His eternally. Who knowing this,
who that trusts and loves Him, can despair?
The last evil on earth is death, and this too
He has overcome, and He will stand by us,
too, as Conqueror, in the hour of death.
Eightly, then, the ^^ Following of Christ '^
sums up the truth: *^In life and in death
hold thou fast to Him, Who, though ail else
forsake thee, will never leave thee. ' '

CHAPTER Vni

THE BOOK OF LIFE

There is an event in the public life of Jesus
which impels us as scarcely any other to love
and give ourselves to our Lord.^

1. Li the third year of His public ministry,
in addition to His Apostles, He appointed
seventy-two disciples to help them in their
apostolic work. After a short absence, these
disciples returned full of joy. They told

iSt. Luke X, 17-24: St. Matth. xi, 25-30.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 197

Him how all had prospered with them
through the power with which He had
equipped them, how even the demons were
subject to them. Our Saviour was full of
joy at hearing these humble words, and in
reply bade them rejoice not merely in this
blessed result of their mission, but in some-
thing far higher and more important, even
in this, that their names were written in the
Book of Life. It is much more important to
be oneself safe than to help others to salva-
tion, and thus to attain that eternal election
which is signified by the ^^Book of Life.''

2. On this occasion our Lord glances at
the great mystery of this election. He sees,
even to the end of time, on the one side the
worldly-wise of the prudent followers of
Satan, who abandon God and are lost; on
the other the childlike, unworldly, and hum-
ble souls who cast themselves on God and are
saved. Besides, He reveals the cause of the
ditferent destiny of the one and the other.
It is the Heavenly Father and the Saviour
Himself. He says of Himself: '^All things
are delivered to Me by My Father. And no
one knoweth the Son, but the Father : neither
doth any one know the Father, but the Son,
and he to whom it shall please the Son to

198 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

reveal Him. ' ' ^ And elsewhere He says :
*'No man can come to Me, except the Father,
Who hath sent Me, draw him. ' ^ ^

By all this He reveals Himself as the co-
operating and effectual Cause, as the Medi-
ator and central point, of the whole splendid
mystery of election. As the Word and Only-
Begotten Wisdom of the Father and as the
God-Man, He is truly the source of all knowl-
edge of God and of all salvation, the sign
at which all created ways part. Whoever
desires to gain salvation must come to the
Father by and through Him. He is indeed
the Book of Life, in which are inscribed the
names of all the elect. This mystery is a
splendid revelation of the central place our
Divine Lord holds in creation, of His excel-
lence, of His Divinity. Therefore He re-
joiced in the Holy Ghost and gave thanks to
the Heavenly Father. But His thanksgiving
was not only for Himself. In His charity He
gave thanks also for His Apostles, and for all
who through faith and love come unto Him
and are numbered with His elect.

3. Our Saviour now draws the conclusion
from the words He has spoken. If we ob-
tain salvation and can come to the Father

1 St. Matth. xi, 27. ^ St. John vL 44.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 199

througli Him alone, it follows that we must
submit ourselves to Him and become His dis-
ciples. Therefore He says: ^'Come unto
Me,'' that is, give yourselves to me by faith
and love. ^'Take My burden and My yoke
upon you, ' ' namely, the yoke of His teaching,
His commandments, and His rule. ^^ Learn
of Me," become My scholars, learn of Me to
be humble and meek. In other words, we
must take our place among the lowly and un-
worldly, whom He extols as happy and to
whom He promises everlasting life. We
must, then, put away all self-sufficiency and
self-satisfaction, simply seek in Him our
salvation for time and eternity, and submit
ourselves to Him with all humility and readi-
ness. Then Christ will reveal the Father to
us, then Lie will lead us to the Father, then
only are we reckoned among the elect and
our names written in the Book of Life. It
is this to which our Saviour invites us.

Beautiful and worthy of reflection are the
grounds He sets before us for following His
bidding. The first is our great and universal
need. By nature we inevitably long for
knowledge, love and happiness, for full,
never-ending joy. Where shall we find
them! Not in ourselves, not in the world or

200 THEEE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

in created things, but only in God, only in
Jesus, Who is eternal Truth, Goodness, and
Beauty. He alone can give us full satisfac-
tion. We are, besides, all of us without ex-
ception, full of trouble, suffering and pain,
in body and soul, in both the natural and
supernatural order. We all sigh beneath the
yoke of evil passions, of sin and of temporal
evil and suffering. Where can we find help,
consolation and refreshment but in our Sav-
iour! His word and His example animate
us, and His grace makes everything possible
and even easy. Therefore He says: ^'Come
to me, all you that labor and are burdened,
and I will refresh you. ' '

The second reason to attach us to Him is
His own Person and His lovable character-
istics. We feel but too well our own insuffi-
ciency and that we must have a master.
Only Christ or the world can be that master.
How condescending, gentle, loyal, and unself-
ish a master Christ is, when we compare Him
with the selfishness, the haughtiness, the t^^r-
anny of the world! His teaching corre-
sponds to all that is best in our nature, and
is consoling and uplifting. His commands
are few. His grace. His rewards and His
promises are many. He is wise, rich and

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 201

mighty, and will Himself be our ''reward
exceeding great/' In Him alone can our
souls find rest.

If this is so, must we not cry out with
Peter: ''Lord, to whom shall we go! Thou
hast the words of eternal life"! He who
would gain his soul's salvation must attach
himself to our Lord by faith and love, with
all his heart. He is the Way, Who leads us
to the Father; He is the Truth, Who satis-
fies our longing; He is the Life, Who gives
us true happiness. What is there for us,
then, in heaven or on earth, what can we de-
sire and long for, but God, the God of our
heart, and our portion for ever? It is good
for us to cleave to Him alone, and to put our
hope in Him.^

CHAPTER IX

HE WAS GOOD

When our Lord celebrated for the last time
the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, there
was much dispute among the people with re-
gard to Him. Some said : ' ' He seduceth the
people," others said: "No, He is good."^

1 Psalm Ixxii, 25, 26, 28.

2 St. Jolm vii, 12.
14

202 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

These last were right. What a man is and
does constitutes the whole man. And what
he is and does a man reveals in his inter-
course with his fellow-men. Christ was God,
and God is before all things Good. There-
fore our Lord was Good.

1. He was good to the rich. Much injus-
tice is often done to them. To hate or to
deify them, just because they are rich, ■ are
alike wrong. The one is envy, the other
folly. Our Saviour loved the rich and de-
sired all that is good for them, because they
too have souls and are God's children. He
pitied them because of their riches, and
warned them of the great danger riches cause
to the soul. But He saw in them and in
their riches a great means for the spread of
His Kingdom and the salvation of men.
Therefore He did not slight the rich and
strove to win them to what is good, but this
in a way worthy of God. He did not seek
out the rich. He let them seek Him. Herod
would gladly have seen Him in his palace.
He did not go to him ; He would be no court-
ier bishop. He healed from a distance the
child of the royal functionary, and did not
follow him home. At the prayer of the
Eoman captain He began to take the road to

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 203

Ms house, but did not enter it, since the offi-
cers' deep humility deprecated His coming.
On the other hand, He kept close to the ruler
of the synagogue, with lovable pertinacity,
and followed him to his house where his little
daughter lay at the point of death. When
besought by the rich He at once complied
with their requests. He thought nothing of
taking trouble. He did not wait for thanks.
This is indeed the charity that edifieth.

2. He was good to the poor, to those who
longed for consolation, the unhappy and the
sick. They were indeed the chief care of His
Heart, for, He says the physician is not for
the whole, but for the sick.^ As the magnet
attracts iron, so His goodness drew all suf-
fering ones to Him. He had true love and
closest sympathy with poor men, because
they were God's children. His own brothers,
and so unutterably wretched. And this sym-
pathy did not lie concealed in His Heart; it
expressed itself by tears, consoling words
and helpful deeds. He did not wait for the
unhappy ones. He went to them, sought
them out, offered them help and took no
notice of their importunity and ingratitude.
He poured out all He had to help them; He

1 St. Matth. ix, 12.

204 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

placed His wisdom and His power at the
service of His Heart.

3. Chief of all unhappy souls, sinners came
to H^im. They are the poorest and most in
need of sympathy. The world has no rem-
edy for these wretched ones, it does not even
know they are miserable and consigns them,
poor despairing multitude, to destruction.
So the Pharisees acted. Not so our Saviour,
the good Shepherd and merciful Father. He
goes to meet the prodigal child, stays the
penitent tears with a kiss, and restores all
that has been lost. His goodness and love
to sinners were so well known to all that His
enemies repeatedly based their wicked de-
signs on this very loving-kindness, and
sought to destroy Him by means of the mercy
of His Sacred Heart.^

4. Even towards these enemies our Lord
was good beyond measure. They sinned hor-
ribly against the love of His Heart and His
merciful endeavor to save them. At the
Feast of the Dedication of the Temple the
Jews stood about Him with stones in their
hands ready to cast at Him. He only asked
them in touching words: ^'Many good
works I have shewed you from My Father;

1 St. Luke vi; 7 ; St. John viii, 3-6.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 205

for which of those works do you stone MeT'
''For a good work/' the Jews answered,
''we stone Thee not, but because Thou, being
a man, makest Thyself God.''^ He had
shown them nothing but goodness beyond all
conception. But they gave Him contradic-
tion in return for His teaching, blasphemy
for His miracles, the blackest ingratitude for
His benefits, murderous hate and the most
terrible and shameful death as the recom-
pense of His charity. In spite of all. He
continued His work in their midst with mar-
velous love and gentleness. He does not
avoid them. He does not leave unanswered
their dishonest questions. He makes of them
opportunities for fresh instruction and warn-
ing. He does not cease His benefits, until
His Heart breaks in death on the cross, and
even as He dies He utters a prayer for their
forgiveness.

Our Lord was, then, good indeed. As the
true bodily Image of God's goodness,^ He
"went about doing good, for God was with
Him.''^ As no one can hide himself from
the life-giving and gladdening splendor of
the orb of day,^ so there is no being upon
whom this goodness and love has not smiled

1 St. John X, 32, 33. 3 Acts x, 38.

2 Wisdom vii, 26. 4 Psalm xviii^ 7.

206 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

and poured forth the joy of His benefits.
And now what follows! That we should be
good, since He has been so good to us ? Un-
doubtedly; but something else first: that
we should love Him, Who, above all else, was
good. We love all that is good, and all who
are good to us; and has not He been good
to us I Let us consider from Whom comes
all the good that we possess, the great grace
of baptism, of the Faith, of life in the Catho-
lic Church, the enjoyment of her immense
gifts, and perhaps the forgiveness of our
misuse of countless graces, and even greater
sins than this. Let us consider what He has
already bestowed upon us and what He will
yet bestow — even Himself — and let us ask
ourselves whom we should love more than
our loving Lord.

CHAPTEE X

HIS PASSION AND DEATH

Suffering is the fiery ordeal of love. This
applies to every kind of love. Our readiness
to suffer for those we love is the measure of
our love. Our Saviour Himself knew of no
other way to measure His love for us than

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 207

this, and He proved that love in the furnace
of His Passion.^ This baptism of blood lays
hold upon the soul with such mighty power
that to noble hearts it is ever the most com-
pelling reason for returning love for love,
suffering for suffering.

The Passion of Christ attracts and moves
our hearts chiefly for three reasons.

1. The first is the motives of the Passion.
If a man suffers through his own fault, and
he endures it in the spirit of penance and
satisfaction, we regard his suffering with
sympathy, and even with respect. Our Lord,
Whose life was immaculate, with Whom
there could be no question of merited suffer-
ing, was able by Divine appointment to offer
the sacrifice of reconciliation for us and for
the sins of the whole world. We, the whole
human race, are guilty, and our guilt cries
to heaven for punishment and satisfaction.
Christ's Passion, with all its terror and
agony is nothing else but the terrible burden
of sin which fell upon our Saviour, our merci-
ful Surety, instead of upon us. *^Whom God
hath proposed to be a propitiation through
faith in His Blood, to the shewing of His jus-
tice, for the remission of former sins.''^

1 St. Luke xii. 49. 2 Rom. iii, 25.

208 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Out of His unutterable love tlie Son offered
Himself, He was delivered up for our sake,
and for our sake bore our sins upon the
Cross. He did penance for sins of which He
was not guilty.^ The Apostle says the same
elsewhere most touchingly: ^^Who loved
me, and delivered Himself for me.''^ Thus
we must regard His Passion. We stood with
our sins behind the Jewish people, the im-
mediate instruments of His death; we took
part in that awful deed. At each scene in
the drama of the Passion each one of us can
say to himself: *^Thou art guilty of this;
thou shouldst suffer.''

Further: our Saviour had introduced a
religion with one faith, one rule of conduct,
with a new order of grace and a new sacri-
fice. He must seal this faith by His death,
fill the fountains of grace, consecrate the
altar with His blood; and it was necessary
for us, above all, that He should set before
us the cross of mortification and earthly suf-
fering and sanctify it to our eternal merit.
And all this He has accomplished by His
Passion.

Lastly, our Saviour willed to unite us here
on earth in one great and glorious Kingdom,

1 Ps. Ixviii, 5. "Quae non rapui, tunc exsolvebam."

2 Gal. ii, 20.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 209

and to lead ns, so united, to heaven. But
the world lay in Satan's power; only a duel
between life and death could create for us
this home of the soul. Like many a noble
prince, our Saviour also has bought us, His.
people, at the price of His life. His blood
has purchased us for Himself, that we might
have our home in the Kingdom of His
Church. Could we ever forget His loving-
kindness 1

Thus the motives of His Passion corre-
spond with our inmost needs. For us, for
our highest spiritual good, He suffered and
died.

2. In the second place the Passion of our
Lord arrests and touches us because of the
multiplicity and the greatness of His suffer-
ings. They are so great, so manifold and
unique, that they stand absolutely alone. He
suffered exteriorly and interiorly, in body
and in soul. There were suif erings that He
alone could inflict on Himself and sufferings
that came to Him from others, and from
every source. There was no one of those
around Him who did not add in some way
to His suffering, neither friend nor foe. So,
too. He endured every kind of sorrow : insult,,
shame, contempt, mockery, ingratitude, trea-

210 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

son and injustice, which give snch anguish
to a noble heart. He never met with justice.
All the earthly representatives of right and
justice forsook His cause, bought Him for a
price and condemned Him to a terrible and
shameful death. "We behold in His Passion
terrible and humiliating cruelties, such as the
Scourging and the Crucifixion; utterly un-
wonted and illegal sufferings, such as the
Crowning with Thorns and the injuries done
Him in the house of Caiphas ; all-mysterious
and wonderful sufferings, such as the Agony
in the Garden of Olives and His dereliction
on the Cross, which He alone could suffer
and accomplish. It is especially these ago-
nies of His soul which exceed in measure
and in bitterness all human sufferings. On
every side all forms of sorrow and pain
pressed upon Him, so that to Him apply in
fullest measure the Prophet's words of the
sorely afflicted city Jerusalem: *^0 ye that
pass by the way, attend and see if there be
any sorrow like to My sorrow." ^ ** Great as
the sea is My affliction.'' ^

But in order to estimate the depth and bit-
terness of these sufferings in some degree,
we must realize the conditions of our Lord's

iLam. i, 12 2 Lam. ii, 13.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 211

Humanity, the delicacy, and sensitiveness of
His body to every pain and injury. He
knew, as none else could know, His divine
majesty and the honor that was His due.
It was only a few days since He had walked
those streets as prophet and wonder-worker,
honored, reverenced and adored by many,
the most beautiful and wisest of the children
of His people, while the city lay in homage
at His feet. And now this end, so full of
ignominy! To offer one's life in accom-
plishment of some noble deed is certainly to
gain the recognition and honor of mankind.
Many have done this. But to die the death
of common sinners and criminals, forsaken
and rejected by God (as it seemed) and man,
to die without honor or consolation, in an
extremity of sutfering that included and re-
vealed all the desolation and weakness of our
poor humanity, so that His infuriated ene-
mies were full of joy,^ that is indeed terrible
and heart-breaking. Our Lord Himself
made known the extremity of that anguish
in His cry of dereliction on the Cross : ^'My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me f ^ Truly the prophet 's words were ful-
filled: *^I am a worm, and no man; the re-

1 St. Matth. xxvii, 39-43, 49.

2 Ibid., 46.

212 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

proach of men, and the outcast of the peo-
ple. " ^ '' There is no beauty in Him, nor
comeliness : and we have seen Him, and there
was no sightliness, that we should be desirous
of Him; despised, and the most abject of
men, a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with
infirmity; and His look was as it were hid-
den and despised, whereupon we esteemed
Him not, ... we have thought Hirh as
one struck by God." ^ ^'He hath led me, and
brought me to darkness, and not into light,
. . . when I cry and entreat. He hath shut
out My prayer. . . . My soul is removed
far off from peace, I have forgotten good
things. And I said: My end and My hope
is perished from the Lord. Eemember My
poverty and dereliction, the wormwood and
the gall. I will be mindful and remember,
and My soul shall languish within Me. ' ' ^
0 terrible Calvary! Where is the place of
such utter desolation, where an hour so de-
void of all consolation, as when our Lord out
of the divine excess of His charity died for
us that self-chosen death — He the holiest,
the most glorious, the most excellent, the
sweetest and most lovable of all the chil-

iPs. xxi, 7. 3 Lam. ii, 2, 8, 17-20.

2 Isaias liii, 2-4.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 213

dren of men? How can we forget that place
and that awful hour!

3. Finally, the Passion of our Lord is
glorious because of the way in which He en-
dured and accomplished it.

The Passion did not come upon Him as a
sudden and unforeseen calamity. All was
foreseen, appointed and chosen by Himself
from eternity. Often and often He spoke
openly of His death to His disciples. In the
fateful moment of His apprehension He for-
bade all attempt at resistance. Myriads of
angels, He said, stood ready for His defense,
and at one word from Him the rabble of His
enemies fell to the ground. And with the
same majestic freedom with which He en-
tered on His Passion, He brought it to an
end. He bowed His Head and died, in token
that none could take His life from Him and
that He laid it down out of the fullness of
His divine power. Truly ^^He was offered
because it was His own will. ' ' ^

A second beautiful characteristic of His
Passion was His courage — a courage the
noblest and most splendid that could ever be.
He suffered neither with stoical inditference
and proud contempt of death, nor with piti-

1 Isaias liii, 7.

214 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

able faint-heartedness. He was actively and
fully sensible of the pain and was not
ashamed to give expression to what He felt,
nor even to weep; but this was to give ns
the greater consolation, in that He truly suf-
fered, suffered bitterly, and by His suffer-
ings made a perfect expiation for our sins as
the High Priest appointed by God, Who, ac-
cording to St. Paul, in the days of His mortal
life offered prayers, with a strong cry and
tears, to Him Who was able to save Him
from death, and ^Vas heard for His rever-
ence.'^ ^

Lastly, His Passion and death bore the
glorious mark of sanctity; He suff^ered and
died exercising the noblest and most exalted
virtue. He forgave His torturers, and be-
sought the mercy of His Father for all who
were guilty of His death; He tenderly cared
for His Mother as she stood beneath His
Cross ; He listened to the humble petition of
the good thief, fulfilled to the letter all the
prophets had foretold, and at last yielded up
His spirit in one sigh of deepest love to us
and most filial submission and resignation
to God the Father. Therefore, His death
is not merely a holy death, but the type,

iHeb. V, 7.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 215

and tlie efficacious cause of the death of all
His saints.

So death came to Him, He entered into His
agony and died like one of us, not from any
necessity, but because He so willed for love
of us.

Underneath the Cross, in view of those last
drops of blood which flowed from the wounded
side and the broken Heart, let us call to mind
the words : ^ ' Greater love than this no man
hath, that a man lay down his life for his
friends '';^ ^^I have forsaken My house, I
have left My inheritance: I have given My
dear soul into the hands of her enemies " ; ^
'^I am the good Shepherd. The good Shep-
herd giveth His life for His sheep ' ' ; ^ and St.
Paul's beautiful words: ^^God commendeth
His charity towards us, because when as yet
we were sinners, Christ died for us.'' "* The
Cross says all. Our Saviour could have done
no more to prove His love for us than what
He has done and suffered in our behalf. It
is the supreme measure of love. But does
not love demand love in return! In corre-
spondence with this love would a love that
offered the sacrifice of the whole world and
of one's own life be too much? A noble soul,

1 St. John XV, 13. 3 St. Jolm x, 11

2 Jer. xii, 7. * Rom. v, 8, 9.

216 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

who desired entire dedication to God in a
severe penitential order, answered this ques-
tion. He was pnt to the proof; was led to
the choir of the monastic church, where he
would have to remain long hours in the
winter nights; was shown the refectory,
where he would have to fast rather than eat,
and the hard bed where he must spend more
sleepless than restful nights ; and at the end
he was asked what he now thought of his vo-
cation. He replied by the question: ^' Shall
I have a crucifix in my cellf On receiving
an affirmative reply he answered decisively:
^'Then I think I am quite ready to enter on
my vocation.'' It is the same thing that St.
Paul declares: ^^In all these things (tribula-
tion, distress, hunger, persecution) we over-
come, because of Him That hath loved us.'' ^

CHAPTEE XI

THE GLOKY OF THE SACKED HUMANITY

The dawn of the second day after the
Pasch found our Lord no longer among the
dead, no longer in the grave at the foot of
the heights of Calvary. He was risen again,

1 Rom. viii, 37.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 217

and had entered on the life of glory, the third
and last step in the Incarnate Life, which
here, as everywhere, is full of grace and
worthy of all our love.

1. Eesurrection is the reunion of body and
soul, not indeed under the former earthly
conditions, but glorious with a new life.
Through the reception of spirit-like facul-
ties the body, without ceasing to be a body,
becomes a changed and marvelous being, the
master-piece of the wisdom and omnipotence
of God in the visible creation, and not merely
an ornament and added beauty to the glori-
fied soul, but also a source of all-unexpected
knowledge, joy and power. Christ, then,
arose in the newness, fullness and splendor
of this glorified Life, becoming in a still
wider sense the Son of God, even in His
Sacred Body, from whose glory shines forth
God's own Image, chiefly by reason of the
gifts of clarity, beauty, and immortality.
Who can realize the loveliness and the majesty
of the Eisen King? All shadows of earth
are passed away. His Face is brighter than
the noon-day. He is clothed with grandeur
and grace, and as He receives every moment
a sea of joy from the whole creation into His
glorified Heart, so He pours a paradise of

15

218 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

delight and blessing into the hearts of all
whom He approaches. All this we find in
the Gospel: His appearance dries all tears,
His greeting gives joy to all hearts, the glory
of Easter is all around Him. We need no
more to give us happiness than the sight and
the enjoyment of the glorified Humanity of
Jesus.

"What magic power beauty has over men's
hearts ! And yet how often it rewards their
service by disappointment, disloyalty and
death. Nothing created can successfully hide
its insufficiency. If we would be truly happy
in the possession of immortal, all-satisfying
beauty, we must take a higher flight.
Whither, Easter Sunday tells us. The Ees-
urrection is indeed the Feast of the body.
Christ's Soul had already won Its glorifica-
tion by His death; by His Eesurrection it
was His Body that was glorified in fullest
measure. The Ascension brought that Body
no further interior glory, but only exterior
splendor by Its change of abode from earth
to heaven. At the Eesurrection, then, He
received that undying beauty which makes
all heaven and earth glad. Therefore Easter
is the feast of beauty, and points out to our
longing hearts the way to the highest, im-

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 219

mortal loveliness, to the supreme type of all
beauty. It teaches us that it is worth while
to sacrifice all earthly beauty, and to wait in
patience. Our feast is not yet come, says
an ecclesiastical writer; but it will come,
and we shall be satisfied and overflow with
joy.

2. After He rose again, our Lord did not
at once ascend to heaven, but remained forty
days longer here on earth with His people,,
ever caring and providing for them with di-
vine and lovable activity, which partly drew
Him to each individual disciple, to console,
to reward, and to impart His special com-
missions, and partly had in view the building
and perfecting of His Church. He appointed
no less than two of the sacraments, baptism
and penance; He revealed the truths of the
Faith, and confirmed His teaching as to the
mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and the
Eesurrection. And by creating the primacy
of St. Peter He placed the crown on the edi-
fice of His Church.

All this our Lord accomplished with in-
exhaustible goodness and loving-kindness. It
might even seem as if after He suffered and
died He was even more loving than before,
so graciously does He comfort His own, so

220 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

generously does He forgive all failures. He
Who knows all, forgives all. The sacraments
of baptism and penance, the primacy, the
promise of immortality — ^what royal, what
divine Easter gifts to the whole world! As
the Eesurrection revealed Him in His undy-
ing splendor, so the Forty Days manifest
Him in His goodness and His care for His
people.

3. At length our Lord went up to heaven
in His glory. The Ascension is the conclu-
sion of His earthly life, the beginning and the
completion of His glorified life in heaven.-
A more sublime conclusion the Incarnate Life
could not have. Our Saviour leads His dis-
ciples to Mount Olivet and in their sight as-
cends thence ail-gloriously to heaven, and
thus as it were gives us a glimpse of the
Kingdom of His glory, of which He now takes
possession for our sakes. Heaven is the
glorious end of all things, and our Lord's
last message to us His people.

Oh, the greatness and the magnificence of
this. His Kingdom! It is a Kingdom of
highest honor, of sweetest and profoundest
peace, of all-refreshing calm, of unbroken and
magnificent work for the honor and joy of
our great and glorious God, of unimaginable

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 221

and never-ending happiness. What an
honor, what a joy it is, to hope for, to
have a right to, this Kingdom and its eternal
blessings ! With what earnest love must onr
thoughts and our hearts be fixed upon it, how
we must devote all our labor, all our facul-
ties, to its concerns! Heaven is the crown-
ing-point of our Lord's power and glory, of
His love and goodness towards us. By his
Ascension He has established a firm anchor
for our faith, our hope, and love. He is the
glorious Star of Morning, that knows no set-
ting. He has gone up in His risen splendor
and shines forth from heaven since the day
of His Ascension, that we may turn our
thoughts, our desires, and our hearts to Him,
away from the changeableness and weakness
of earthly things to heaven where are true
and unfading joys.

Eternal joy is then the glorious end of our
Lord's earthly life and the essence of His
never-ending life of glory. And so must it
be. As God He is the archetype and source
of joy, and for Him to be without the fullness
of joy would be to change His essential be-
ing. As God-made-Man He is the all-glori-
ous Image of the Godhead, the Source, Pos-
sessor, and Lord of the joy of heaven, in a

222 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

way impossible to any other created being.
The earthly suffering He bore was but
transitory. He accepted and endured it out
of love to God and to us, but it could never
be His abiding state. So too is it with us,
His creatures, servants, and brethren. Not
suffering and sorrow, but joy is the key-note
of our life. Never let us forget that. Joy is
the watchword of Christendom, our Supreme
Lord's order of the day. Nothing else be-
fits either Him or us. Strange courage and
mysterious strength are in the very word. It
makes the soul eager for self-sacrifice and un-
conquerable. It overcomes all difficulties,
solves all doubts as to the Christian Faith
and fills our hearts with love for the Master
Whose honor and glory are fulfilled in our
happiness. '^Thy Life is our way,'' rightly
says the author of the '^Following of
Christ," '^and by holy patience we attain to
Thee Who art our Crown. ' ' ^

1 Imit. Christi, lib. iii, cap. xviii, 3. "Nam vita Tiia via
nostra, et per sanctam patientiam ambulamus ad Te, Qui
es corona nostra."

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 223

CHAPTER XII

THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR

Our Saviour lias gone up to heaven, and
yet is here on earth amongst us, as the Faith
teaches, in His true Body. This is through
the miracle of the Most Holy Sacrament
which consists in the fact that our Lord is
truly, really, and essentially present. Body
and Soul, Divinity and Humanity, under the
veil of the sacramental forms, so long as
these forms continue to exist. The Most
Holy Sacrament is the golden link that joins
heaven and earth in an essential union.

1. This leads us at once to one of the ef-
fects of the Holy Eucharist, namely, the con-
tinual Presence of our Saviour here on earth.
Before His enemies were permitted to take
away His life. His love, swifter than death,
had already provided for His Presence on
earth in a new way, by the institution of the
Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. This His
continual Presence is, first, a true and actual,
and secondly, a miraculous presence. He
can be here and in heaven and in a thousand
places. He willed to be, to the outward
senses, but a little piece of bread, at the same

224 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

time living in all the completeness and beauty
of His Sacred Humanity, to make Himself so
small that a child's hand can hold Him
Whom heaven cannot contain — wonders that
only His love and His power could work.
As flowers among the pearls of morning dew,
so is the Blessed Sacrament among other
miracles. It is all one vast miracle. Yet
again, the Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
most powerfully evokes our love, because it
is all-peaceful and most intimate. How
small a place He takes amongst us ! How lit-
tle He asks of us ; only that we receive Him as
our food. The rest He leaves to our love
and generosity. He has just so much out-
ward honor as we bestow upon Him. Once,
when He was on earth, men had to seek Him.
Now He seeks men, seats Himself as it were
at their side and makes them happy, not only
by His Presence, but by the benedictions that
come therewith and the sweet devotions that
are the result of that Presence. How work-
a-day and how silent would this world of ours
be but for the Blessed Sacrament !

2. Our Saviour not only remains continu-
ally amongst us in the Eucharist, but also
offers Himself on our behalf. This is the
second effect of the Most Holy Sacrament.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 225

His Eucliaristic Presence can only be main-
tained and manifested through the holy Mass.
But the Mass is in its very essence a Sacri-
fice, the Sacrifice of the New Covenant. Our
Lord twice offered Himself, on the Cross and
in the Cenacle. But the Sacrifice of the Mass
is precisely the same as the Sacrifice of the
Last Supper, and essentially the same as the
Sacrifice of the Cross. The Mass is not
merely a memorial and a representation, but
a renewal, continuation, and accomplishment
of the sacrifice of Calvary, because the High
Priest, the Offering, and the merit are the
same, and have the same effect. We are not
the generation in whose time our Lord of-
fered Himself on the Cross and in the
Cenacle. What a miracle of grace it is that
He should will to renew His Sacrifice, to give,
as it were, to every individual the merit of
that Oblation and thus to furnish each one
of us with the means of offering the homage
that man owes to God in adoration, thanks-
giving and satisfaction. Even more than
this. He does not, as once, accomiolish His
sacrifice alone. He chooses for Himself
priests from among the sons of men, and with
them and by their means offers His sacrifice
to God. Thus He makes it really our own,

226 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

by His co-operation gives infinite value to
the oblation we bring and enables us to offer
God an homage worthy of His eternal
majesty. He never tires of offering this
sacrifice to the Divine glory. With the sun,
Holy Mass encircles the world, from a thou-
sand fresh altars. Its fragrance continually
ascends to God and consecrates the whole ,
earth as His living temple. How rich jbe-
yond all thought, even with respect to God
Himself, the grace and love of our Saviour
makes us through the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Nowhere does God attain the end of His crea-
tion so completely and so gloriously as in the
Sacrifice of the Mass.

3. The third effect of the Eucharist results
from the fact that it is not only a sacrifice,
but a sacrament as well. As a sacrifice it
relates in the first instance to God, as a sacra-
ment to ourselves. Through the Blessed
Sacrament God bestows upon us the grace
by which we obtain supernatural life and are
saved. This supernatural life was given us
in Baptism; it is sustained and strengthened
by the Sacrament of the Altar. In all other
sacraments Christ makes a visible sign the
means of grace, in the Sacrament of the Altar

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 227

He makes use of His own Body as the in-
strument of grace.

The Blessed Sacrament, then, is the Body
of Jesus under the form of bread, received
as food. What high and glorious gifts of
love He includes in this gift of Himself!

The essence of the sacrament is here noth-
ing less than His Body, Which He bestows
upon us. Which He makes the instrument of
His grace, as once He used His divine hand
to heal the sick and raise the dead, and in a
way yet far more full of grace. He gives us
His Body, the supreme sanctuary and
miracle of heaven and earth, and with His
Body He also gives His soul. His divinity.
His merit, and His grace; all that He is, all
that He has. He makes our own. Is there in
all His creation a being more rich or more
honored than he who bears in his heart his
God and Saviour? Could we ask more of
Him? Could He give us more?

Because our Saviour Himself is the very
essence of this sacrament, it follows that the
Holy Eucharist is the most sublime and
greatest of all sacraments, not only in
dignity, but also in efficacy. Holy Com-
munion is the most intimate union, at once

228 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

corporal and spiritual, of ourselves with
Christ, and therefore it must excel all
other sacraments in power to sustain and
increase the supernatural life within us. As
Christ is the Life, so Holy Communion is
the Sacrament of Life.^ On this account
the most exalted virtues and spiritual
states, such as charity, peace, joy, courage,
chastity, virginity, self-sacrifice, are as-
cribed in special wise to the Sacrament of
the Altar as its direct effects. The divine
life which Christ possesses becomes ours
through Holy Communion.^ Even our body
receives through it the pledge of a glorious
resurrection. How exactly the outward
forms of the Blessed Sacrament express these
great effects of its reception! Bread and
wine are the symbols of life, eating is the
symbol of most intimate union and of
strength, a festal meal the expression of joy
and hearty friendship. What, in fine, more
strikingly testifies than this outward sign to
the unselfish and confiding love of our
Saviour towards us? He perceived that
nothing is more intimately united with us
than bodily nourishment. It enters into us,
is transformed into our substance and be-

1 St. John vi, 54-58. 2 St. John vi, 58.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 229

comes one with ns. He would not allow any
creature to be united with us more intimately
than Himself. So He made Himself our
food, both for soul and body. Indeed we
rather become a part of Himself than He a
part of us. He, the Mighty God, receives us
that we may after a spiritual manner be
transformed into Himself and, so far as we
are able, be made partakers of His Divinity.
We behold this ordinary, little, apparently
lifeless piece of bread. Can our great God
thus make Himself unimportant, humiliate
Himself, appear helpless? So, indeed. He
possesses Himself of the object of His love,
a human heart, that He may give it joy,
honor and enrich it. How sweet and touch-
ing a thought it is, that nowhere does a conse-
crated Host find its end but in a human heart !
4. How wide-embracing, how great, and
how divine appears our Lord's love towards
us in the various applications of the Most
Holy Sacrament of the Altar ! How wonder-
ful a light is thrown on His words, that He
would not leave us orphans, that He would
ever abide with us, that He as the Vine, we
as the branches, form an organic unity. In
the Eucharist, He extends, in a manner. His
Incarnation to all men. In the Incarnation

230 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

He only imparted Himself to His own
Humanity; in Holy Communion He bestows
Himself upon each of us, uniting each to Him-
self in most intimate union. By creation He
is our Father, by preservation our Sustainer
and Guide, by justification our Eedeemer.
What is He by the Sacrament of the Altar?
The relationship is so inexpressibly intimate
as to be beyond our words. Now the motive
which induced Him to do all this for us was
not only sympathy, mercy and goodness, but
boundless and self -forgetting love, which even
now does not shrink from sacrifice. He could
have made that sacrifice lighter ; it would have
sufficed if He had been present in one place in
the world, if He had rejoiced us once in our
lives by His visit to our souls and had made
that visit only to those worthy of it. It
would have sufficed if He were really present
only at the moment of reception. He re-
jected all these limitations, and thus exposed
Himself to a thousand indignities and ir-
reverences. Let us not forget through what
a bitter sea of ingratitude and injury He
must pass every time He stands before our
hearts that He may unite us sacramentally
to Himself and knocks at the door like the
Bridegroom in the Canticle of Canticles:

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 231

''Open to me, My love, My head is full of
dew, and My locks of the drops of the night. ' ' ^
Where can we more fitly offer love for love
to our Saviour than in the Most Holy Sacra-
ment, from which such a glow of love streams
forth upon us and which is rightly called
the Sacrament of Love! Although His per-
petual Presence is with us everywhere and
at every hour, yet in Holy Mass He offers
Plimself to us in the closest of all unions.
How overwhelming a motive, how wonderful
a means, for increasing continually in our
love for Him!

CHAPTER XII

HIS LAST INJUNCTIONS

The last words and wishes of a beloved
friend from whom we are about to part, of a
dying father or mother, remain with us all
our life long. We treasure them as a sacred
legacy and a pledge of heavenly blessing.
And therefore our Saviour, before He went
forth to His Passion, left to His Apostles
and to us all a last testament, in that part-
ing discourse, so full of celestial beauty, in

1 Cant. V, 2.

232 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

which He imparted to us the deepest mys-
teries of His Heart and His last divine charge.
These last injunctions must also be the last
subject considered in this little book.

1. Now what are theyf Simply what all
who love each other intimately and are forced
to part earnestly desire and beg of each other
— that they may remain united at least in
spirit. It is this that our Saviour, now that
His bodily Presence must be taken from us,
so earnestly and repeatedly enjoins : ^ ^ Abide
inMe.'^i

2. We ask now how this union is to be
understood. Obviously the bond uniting Him
and us can only be of a spiritual character,
but, as He Plimself explains, it is something
real and living, not transitory, but enduring
and rooted in the very essence of our being.
On this account our Lord employs the beau-
tiful, deeply significant parable of the Vine
and the branches.^ The branches are or-
ganically united to the vine-stock and form
with it one fellowship of life and being. So
must be, in its degree, our union with Christ,
truly accomplished, as it is, by sanctifying
grace. This grace is a real, spiritual and
abiding faculty of our souls, a partaking by

1 St. John XV, 4, 5, 6. 2 xv, 1.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 233

the creature in the Divine Nature and an im-
age of the Divine Sonship. It makes us
partakers, in a spiritual manner of that
Sonship, so that we become like the Divine
Saviour, Who is the Son of God by Nature.
So long as sanctifying grace remains in us,
all that He says of this union is fulfilled, i. e.,
He is and remains within us, that we may be
one in Him and in the Father, as They are
One.^ But the Father and the Son are One
by the possession of the same Divine Nature ;
and it is an image of that Nature that we
possess in sanctifying grace. Its possession
is the first, most essential and abiding con-
dition of union with Christ, as it is in general
the basis of all gifts and powers that make
up the spiritual life.

3. This sanctifying grace, which attaches
itself to the very essence of our souls, brings
with it supernatural powers and faculties
which enable us to prove the reality of our
spiritual life by virtuous deeds. Our Lord
reckons three virtues that prove our union
with Him.

It is proved, first, by faith. Faith is the
first step in our approach to God, our union
with Him through our understanding, by

1 St. John xvii, 21-23.
16

234 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

which we acknowledge and hold as true His
revelation of Himself as God, onr highest
Good and our last End. He gives us the sub-
limest motives for this union with Him by
faith. These are, the express attestation
that He is God, then the fact of His miracles,
and lastly the absolute necessity of holding
fast to Him by faith if we would not be cast
away and would bring forth fruit unto
eternal life. ^'You believe in God, believe
also in me. ... He that seeth Me seeth
the Father also. . . . Believe you not
that I am in the Father, and the Father in
Mef Otherwise believe for the very works'
sake. Amen, amen, I say to you, he that be-
lieveth in Me, the works that I do, he also
shall do, and greater than these shall he do." ^
'^I am the Vine; you the branches: he that
abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bear-
eth much fruit; for without Me you can do
nothing. If anyone abide not in Me he shall
be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither." ^
How we must treasure faith, then, and how
earnestly must we exercise ourselves in faith,
by which alone we can apprehend Christ and
by which the light of love breaks forth upon
us to our unutterable joy!

1 St. John xiv, 1, 9, 11, 12. 2xv, 5, 6.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 235

Love is the second and most essential con-
dition of union with our Saviour; love is in-
deed the perpetual affection of the will to-
wards the loved one. '^ Abide in My love/' ^
It is most consoling that our Lord here ex-
plains in what love essentially consists, i, e.,
not in sensible sweetness, but in the continual
direction of our will towards the keeping of
God's commandments.- By this is meant the
habit of charity, which is included in sancti-
fying grace and remains with us so long as
we commit no grievous sins and thus main-
tain our will in union with Him.

Our Lord lays special stress on this love,
and as its motive points out, first, the
Father's love to us if we love His Son, Whom
He has given to us ; ^ secondly. His own love,
which He has proved by choosing us and
imparting to us as His friends all heavenly
mysteries ^ and by laying down His Life for
our sakes ; ^ thirdly and finally, He promises,
as the reward of the loving soul, many ex-
traordinary illuminations from the Three
Divine Persons, Who will in a special man-
ner reveal Themselves to, and bestow Them-

1 St. John XV, 9. 4 XV, 15.

2xiv, 15, 21, 23, 24; xv, 10, 14. 6 xv, 13.

3xiv, 21, 23; xvi, 27.

236 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

selves upon, sucIl a souL^ Thus He makes
known the sublime and sweet mystery of
grace, which even here below can, in various
degrees, mystically unite the soul with God
in a union which is already the dawn of
heavenly love and happiness.

But faith and love can only effectually
prevail with God through prayer, and this is
the third condition of union with Him. The
prayer our Saviour enjoins in His farewell
discourse has a special and most intimate
relation to Him because it must be said in
His Name.2 It is so offered, if the soul is
interiorly united with Him by grace, prays
with His intentions, for the glory of God and
the good estate of Plis Kingdom, and peti-
tions through the merits of our Lord. This
view of prayer invites us to pray as scarcely
any other motive can. It sets forth prayer,
made according to Christ ^s intention, as a
compensation to His Apostles for the with-
drawal of His visible presence. What He
was to them in His intercourse, that will He
be to us in prayer. He will instruct, con-
sole, protect us, and provide for all our needs.
Therefore He says to His Apostles that
hitherto they had not asked anything in His

1 St. John xiv, 23.

2xiv, 13, 14; XV, 16; xvi, 23, 26.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 237

Name, because He was with them.^ Now lie
wills to do everything for them, and for ns,
through prayer. The efficacy of prayer in
His Name is great beyond our reckoning. It
it, as it were, His prayer, and therefore is
all-prevailing.2 This is so true that such
praying does not even need His commenda-
tion.^ It is the means of most intimate union
with Him and the mightiest instrument for
the exaltation and spread of His Kingdom.
Can there be a stronger, a more beautiful, or
a more sublime motive for prayer ?

This is, then, our Lord's last charge: that
we be united to Him by grace, by faith, by
love and by prayer. This is the last and
most consoling revelation that He loves us
and wills that we should love Him in return ;
His last sacred command, vouched for by His
own word; His last and most emphatic de-
sire. Must we not hold it sacred and
precious ? It suffices for our union with Him.
Faith unites our understanding, love our will,
prayer our memory and affection to our
Lord. So our whole being is transplanted
into Him, passes over to Him. It is no
longer we that live, but Christ that lives in

1 St. John xvi, 24. 3 xvi, 26.

2xiv, 14; XV, 16. 4 Gal. ii, 20.

238 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

We began with prayer and with love,
which seeks and clings to Christ by prayer.
Let us turn back to our beginning. Prayer,
self-denial, and the love of God, interiorly
associated with each other form the three-
fold link of the spiritual life and of Chris-
tian perfection, whether in the freedom of
the world or the peace of the cloister. But
none of the three must fail. Where there
is no prayer, there is no strength in self-
denial, no deep comprehension of God and
no love of Him; where self-denial is want-
ing, prayer will vanish, and inordinate self-
love leave no place for the love of God;
finally, where there is no love for Him,
prayer and glad self-sacrifice are impossible.
The three in union, mutually and actively
helping each other, bring the soul at last to
the crown of justice.

There are three necessary conditions, then,
to our salvation; but the greatest of them is
love,^ the bond of perfection, the Lord^s first
and last commandment. God simply asks for
love, all the rest He leaves to us. He is the
God and the unchallenged Master of our
hearts simply through love. To love, diffi-
culties are no difficulties, but means and op-

1 1 Cor. xiii, 13.

OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 239

portunities the soul desires in order to prove
her loyalty. ''Love, and do what thou wilt/'
says St. Augustine/ and St. John: ''We
have known, and have believed the charity
which God hath to us.'' ^ Nothing can with-
stand this love of Jesus Crucified ; it has over-
come the world. Our Lord, our Eedeemer
and our God, how infinitely lovable He is!
He has loved us even unto death, and loves
us still unutterably. He wills to be loved by
us. He appeals to our hearts and bids us
love Him. Is not that enough for us, in our
littleness and poverty, needing love and hap-
piness so sorely? Love is so infinitely great
a good, so infinitely to be desired, that no
pains can ever be too inuch to gain it. We
must continually pray that we may not close
our eyes in death before we have attained to
perfect love. To know and love the Saviour
is our highest gain both for time and eternity.
Eternally to be pitied is he to whom this
knowledge and this love have not come in this
life. Our wisdom, our holiness and happi-
ness are just in proportion to our knowledge
and love of Jesus. And if our life be but a
journey along the way of the Cross, let us
not be grieved It is a trial of our patience,

1 In Epist. Joannis ad Parthos, tract. 7, n. 8.

2 St. John iv, 16.

240 THREE FUNDAMENTAL PEINCIPLES

but the end is worth the pain of this begin-
ning. If sensible joy were granted here,
love's jonrney would no doubt be easier, but
not more meritorious. In heaven it needs
no skill to love God, but here, in the life of
faith, and often in conflict with powers that
are either hateful or alluring, it is a work that
needs the highest skill and glorifies God in
the highest degree. But we trust that even
on earth a day will come when there will be
vouchsafed to us that knowledge of our Lord,
so full of beauty and of joy that is the dawn
of the eternal bliss of heaven.

THE END

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STACKS BX2350.M55 1912x

Meschler, Maurice.

Three fundamental principles of the spir